Ada Maria Thilén (May 10, 1852 – June 14, 1933) was a Finnish painter known for her landscapes.

Life

Ada Thilén was born in

Kuopio Kuopio ( , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Savo. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Kuopio is approximately , while the Kuopio sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mos ...

in 1852. Her left eye was damaged from birth, and she had to use a glass eye for the rest of her life. Her father was the Senate Treasury Chamber Councilor Julius Gustaf Reinhold Thilén (1812–1887) and her mother was Vilhelmina Angelika Elisabet EhrnroothGeni.com : Ada Maria Thilén
/ref> (1827–1890). Thilén studied with the Finnish-Swedish painter Hjalmar Munsterhjelm at the

Royal Swedish Academy of Arts The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts (), commonly called the Royal Academy, is located in Stockholm, Sweden. An independent organization that promotes the development of painting, sculpture, architecture, and other fine arts, it is one of seve ...

in Stockholm and under

Léon Bonnat Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (; 20 June 1833 – 8 September 1922) was a French painter, Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur, art collector and professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Early life Bonnat was born in Bayonne, but from 1846 to 1853 ...

and

Jean-Léon Gérôme Jean-Léon Gérôme (; 11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academic painting, academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living art ...

in Paris. She went on painting trips, including

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

in 1886. Thilén participated in exhibitions of Finnish Artists in 1893, 1895, 1897, 1900, 1901, 1903, 1906 and 1924. Thilén painted landscapes and portraits in oils and also worked in pastel and watercolor. Her works are stylistically representative of French realism of the 1880s, which also had Italian influences. The Finnish National biography believes that her profile is less than her contemporaries because of her modesty and because she has not attracted the same level of academic interest. In 1896 she painted her own self portrait. She continued to use a glass eye and this did not seem to affect her success as an artist. She had a long friendship with three other female artists:

Helene Schjerfbeck Helena Sofia (Helene) Schjerfbeck (; July 10, 1862 – January 23, 1946) was a Finnish modernist painter known for her realist works and self-portraits, and also for her landscapes and still lifes. Throughout her long life her work changed dram ...

, Maria Wiik and

Helena Westermarck Helena Charlotta Westermarck (20 November 1857, Helsinki – 5 April 1938, Helsinki) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish artist and writer. She is known for her pioneering biographies of women. Biography Westermarck studied art at the Drawing School ...

(with whom she once shared a studio). These Swedish and Finnish female painters all studied together between 1876 and 1878 under Professor Adolf von Becker. She debuted as an artist in 1876, initially representing landscapes, with an idealistic and romantic vision of art, influenced by her first teachers. In 1880 she began to study in Paris at the Trélat Academy, where she had the French painters

and

as professors. Other Finnish artists studying in the Parisian academy at the time included

Ellen Favorin Elsa "Ellen" Favorin (31 December 1853 Kuorevesi – 27 November 1919 Lohja) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish painter. Biography Her parents were Anders Abraham Favorin and Lovisa Ingman. After attending the painting schools in Helsinki and Stock ...

and Alma Engblom, who along with Thilén, went on to study at the

Académie Colarossi The Académie Colarossi (1870–1930) was an art school in Paris founded in 1870 by the Italian model and sculptor Filippo Colarossi. It was originally located on the Île de la Cité, and it moved in 1879 to 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumière in the ...

, under the tutelage of realist salon artists Gustave Courtois and Louis-Joseph-Raphaël Collin. Her Parisian teachers, along with the influence exerted on her by the Finnish painters

Fanny Churberg Fanny Churberg (12 December 1845 – 10 May 1892) was a Finnish landscape painter. Biography Churberg was born on 12 December 1845, in Vaasa. Her father, Matias Churberg, was a doctor from a family of farmers and her mother Maria was the daughte ...

and Hilda Granstedt during the summer of 1880, were key in Thilén's evolution towards portrait painting and the typical French realism of the time, with Italian influences, which is reflected in her most famous work, The Blue Bell Girl of 1890. Thilén used oil paints, as well as watercolors and pastels, and her works were usually small in size and nature-themed. Her work is characterized by simplicity, emotion and mastery of drawing and color. In 1896 Thilén painted her self-portrait. She made trips to several destinations, in which she dedicated herself to painting landscapes and portraits.

Gallery

File:Thilén, Porkkanoita kantava tyttö.jpg, ''Porkkanoita kantava tyttö'' (hacia 1889) File:Ada Thilén - Oyster Pickers - A-2001-345 - Finnish National Gallery.jpg, ''Oyster Pickers'' (1885) File:Ada Thilen - Girl Reading in a Landscape.jpg, ''Girl Reading in a Landscape'' (1896) File:Ada Thilen - Small Chores.jpg, ''Small Chores'' File:Ada Thilén - At the Spinning Wheel - A-1993-302 - Finnish National Gallery.jpg, ''At the Spinning Wheel'' (1888) File:Ada Thilen - Rooster and Chicken.jpg, ''Rooster and Chicken''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thilen, Ada 1852 births 1933 deaths People from Kuopio Finnish women painters Artists from the Grand Duchy of Finland Painters from the Russian Empire