Thank you, Chris Burscough!
From the Vouge website:
Tove Jansson, Beloved Creator of the Moomins, Painted the World as She Wanted to See It
In 1942, newly moved out of her family’s Helsinki apartment and living on her own, the Finnish artist Tove Jansson painted a self-portrait. She gave herself a cool confidence: steely gaze, striped brown coat, a lynx stole draped around her neck. “I look like a cat in my yellow fur,” she wrote to a friend. “I don’t know yet whether it’s good or bad, I simply paint.”
Jansson may not have been sure of the work’s quality at the time, but I am: It’s marvelous. Through her brilliant use of color, the focused look in her eyes, the subtle flowers in the background, and the swaggering outfit (the lynx stole was purchased while in a “reckless mood,” according to her biographer Boel Westin), Jansson channeled a clear point of view. On the cusp of 30 and with the Second World War raging around her, the young artist braced herself for what was ahead. She was watchful, a bit defiant, bold.
Read the rest of the article here
The Toronto Comic Jam 