What did Tove Jansson write for children. Finnish writer Tove Jansson: biography, personal life and creativity. Tove Jansson's legacy
tove yanson troll fairy tale
Childhood
Tove Marika Jansson was born in Helsinki on August 9, 1914, Ahola S. Tove Jansson. Writer, illustrator, artist. // One hundred famous Finns. Helsinki, 2004. C.777.
On her mother's side, she belonged to the ancient Swedish family of Hammarsten, from which many prominent statesmen and just famous people. Tove's mother, Signe Hammarsten (1882-1970), was the granddaughter of a pastor and the daughter of a court preacher. Braude L. Small prose of the great writer. // Jansson T. Sculptor's daughter. SPb., 2001. P.8 As Tove Jansson told me, her parents did not allow Signe to become an artist. Despite this, at first she got a job as an art teacher at a girls' school in Stockholm, and then, as an adult, she went to study in Paris. There, in 1910, Signe Hammarsten met Viktor Jansson, a Finnish sculptor four years her junior. Ahola S. Tove Jansson. Writer, illustrator, artist. // One hundred famous Finns. Helsinki, 2004. C.779
Viktor Jansson (1886-1958) was the son of a haberdasher from Helsinki. Braude L. Small prose of the great writer. // Jansson T. Sculptor's daughter. SPb., 2001. P.7 His father died early. The mother continued to keep the store, but things were not going well in it, and before marriage, Victor had to help his mother in managing the store. But it was thanks to his forced stay in Finland that he managed to take a place in the ranks of the first generation of Finnish sculptors who were educated at home.
He took part in civil war in parts of the White Army, and rose from private to sergeant. After the war, he became a renowned architect and sculptor of war-related monuments. In particular, he designed the freedom monuments in Lahti and Tampere, as well as the monument at the military cemetery in Sysmä.
In the summer of 1913, Victor and Signe got married.? Ahola S. Tove Jansson. Writer, illustrator, artist. // One hundred famous Finns. Helsinki, 2004. C.779 First year life together the newlyweds spent in Paris. Then, in 1914, they moved to Helsinki and settled in a studio apartment on Luotsinkatu street on Katajanokka, known from Tove Jansson's autobiographical book The Sculptor's Daughter. There. A few months later, the first child, Tove Marika, was born in the family. Later, Tuve had two brothers - Per Olov (1920) and Lars (1926).
Signe Hammarsten-Jansson had to take care of the family. If she, marrying a sculptor, thought about a career as an artist, her hopes were not fully justified. Of course, you can make art if only the mother of three children has time left for this, and if there is a place for this on the table in the corner of her husband's workshop. Signe did not get his own work room until 1933, when the Janssons moved to new apartment at the Lallukka Artists' House. Ibid., p.780
She did some book illustrations even before her marriage. In Finland, her first works were book covers, and for the first time the signature "Ham" appeared on them. Gradually she became one of the most famous book illustrators in Finland.
Another important field of her activity was caricatures and caricatures, she did this back in Stockholm. In Finland, she began to draw for the Christmas magazine Lucifer, published by the Union of Swedish-speaking Journalists, and later became a regular artist for the liberal humor magazine Garm.
In the 1920s Signe Hammarsten-Jansson was hired part-time as an artist at the Bank of Finland's banknote printers. For 28 years of work, she managed to draw 170 postage stamps that were in use. There.
The authors who wrote about Tova Jansson noted the huge role of home and family both in her life and in her work. motive hearth, we can find affection for loved ones in almost all of her books, but in children's books he is almost the main one. Judging by her memoirs, the Moomin family strongly resembles Tove Jansson's own family. Moominpappa is the same as Victor Jansson - from time to time falls into depression from the green tranquility of the Moominvalley, puts his family in a boat, and moves to a rocky islet with a lighthouse far out to sea. Moominmamma and Signe Hammarsten-Jansson are very close to each other, rushing between creativity and housework. The Moomin trolls live in their most comfortable Moomin house, to which all the restless are drawn, including even such a self-sufficient but lonely character as Snufkin. Tuve herself left her parental home when she was already 28 years old. Ibid., p.778
Tove Jansson titled her childhood memories "The Sculptor's Daughter". This is more a gesture of love than an indication of the fundamental influence of her father, since in life and work Tove was more the daughter of an artist than a sculptor. Tove loved her mother very much, and as a child she constantly watched her work. In 1928, she writes in her diary: "My mother important work. (…) I am looking forward to the time when I can help my mother with the illustrations. She does so much work alone". Ibid., p. 781 Attitude towards mother has not changed over time. Even at the age of 78, Tove Jansson still said, "that she always tried to be like her mother, she always tried to draw like her." There same.
But it would not be entirely true to say that the tender attitude towards the mother and the constant observation of how she works had a decisive influence on the choice of Tove Jansson's profession. Important for the formation of her creative personality was the atmosphere in which she grew up.
Tove Jansson's house was not just a home for a close-knit family; first of all, it was a house of artists. Their apartment consisted of almost one room - a workshop, where there were many sculptures made by Viktor Jansson. There was also a table at which the mother worked, and the children slept in the same room on the mezzanine. Little Tove always saw her mother bent over a drawing, and her father with a chisel in his hand.
Theater director Vivica Bandler writes in her memoirs: "Tuva was brought up to treat everyone who was not an artist with compassion." Ibid., p.778 She made no effort to become an artist - she was one from birth, and never imagined herself in another role.
Marika Tove Jansson is a Finnish artist and writer, all of her stories were written in Swedish. Popularity brought her works about the Moomins. Their wonderful world is still used in the design of various products, and books have been translated into more than 40 languages.
But Tuve did not stop at one thing, she was fond of graphics, often drawing cartoons and comics. The woman was born on August 9, 1914 in the city of Helsinki.
creative family
The mother of the future writer was an artist, her name was Signe Hammarsten. Father, Viktor Jansson, was a sculptor. Tove was the first child, her brothers Per and Lars chose the professions of a photographer and an artist, respectively. In an interview, the artist often talked about her mother, descended from an ancient revered family, but her father did not enjoy such attention. Marika spent all her childhood with her grandmother in Sweden, near the sea.
At the age of 15, Jansson began her studies in Sweden, majoring in art. The girl from childhood was surrounded by creative people, she trained in Italy, France and Sweden. Tuva's drawings were often presented at exhibitions, in addition, the girl participated in theatrical performances and created illustrations for printed publications.
The girl's mother worked in Garm magazine, so her daughter had no obstacles on her way to publishing her own comics and illustrations for books. The works of L. Carroll and J. Tolkien enjoyed special respect in her eyes.
First books
Even during her first trip to Germany, the girl drew the first Moomintroll. This small black behemoth had a certain resemblance to characters that appeared much later. But Tuve began full-fledged work on drawings and books during the war, in 1939. This is not surprising, because colorful positive characters created a unique atmosphere that helped to distract from the ongoing horrors. The writer wanted to create a fairy tale.
Initially, the Moomin character became a kind of Jansson's calling card, she constantly drew him next to the signature in the magazine. The creature had different emotions on its face, a long tail and small ears resembling horns. It was slightly angular, but after a while acquired a certain roundness.
The very plot of the works was in some way borrowed from folklore, but most of it was composed by the writer herself. In part, she drew ideas from her own childhood, growing up with her characters. The image of home and family is very important in the stories. This place is shown as the safest, where you will always be supported and understood. In the following works, the author gradually shows that not everything is so smooth and good in the world, but at the same time she teaches children not to be disappointed.
No less important in the works of Jansson is the motive of freedom. It helps people to understand that everyone has the right to their own opinion and self-realization, they cannot impose their ideas about the world on others. It is noteworthy that older works also came out from under her pen. The girl described her childhood in the story "The Sculptor's Daughter", and in the 1970s several collections were published - "Toy House", "Listener" and the novel "City of the Sun". Critics attributed these writings to the style of realism.
Artwork
Until the age of 28, Tove lived with her parents, so in her heart she remained a child for a long time. In 1942, she moved to a separate apartment, where “Still Life with Daffodils” was painted, embodying her attitude to life. The picture is saturated with light and pleasant colors, it can be called sunny.
The girl's apartment was equipped with a large workshop in light colors. Her beloved artist Tuulikki Pietilä worked in the same building. It was there that they celebrated the end of the war period. Girls often held parties for other representatives of contemporary art. Writers and artists walked until morning.
A large number of Jansson's self-portraits have been preserved, thanks to them it is easy to trace her attitude towards herself and changes. In 1940, the painting "Smoking Girl" was created, which personified the independence and wayward nature of a woman. Two years later, Tove portrayed herself in a lynx boa. She liked this work for the difference in the softness of the suit and the severity of the facial features. A man's jacket made it clear that a woman was not going to give in to anyone in the field of art, she deserves exactly the same rights as her male counterparts.
Some critics did not like the artist's paintings, since many of them were not completely finished. She was also distinguished by her love for a huge number of details that overloaded the canvases. But after a trip to France and Italy in 1948, Tuve was able to correct her mistakes, progress was obvious even to the most captious visitors to the exhibition.
During her life, the woman managed to receive many awards. In 1952, she was awarded on behalf of the municipality of Stockholm, some time later, Tuve was awarded the medals of Hans Andersen and Selma Lagerlöf. She was also awarded the Polish Order of Smile. Sometimes the commercialization of works strained her, so over time the writer decided to direct her creative forces in a different direction, taking up painting and writing novels.
The girl was not afraid to express her attitude to what was happening, she drew political cartoons, boldly signing them with her own name. Jansson has always been a pacifist. Tove was remembered by everyone as a person who perfectly understands the psychology of children. Each of her stories evoked many emotions in people, starting from an early age. The girl was able to especially subtly convey all the feelings that the children encountered, she helped them to believe in themselves, to form as a person.
Personal life and family
In the 1930s, the artist Sam Vanni was a family friend and woman's lover. She painted his portrait, by which it is already easy to determine his influence on Tuve's work. After parting, they remained friends, as is always the case with Jansson relationships. She saw no point in wasting time on petty quarrels. The girl became friends with the wife of a former partner, they traveled together.
Even during the war, the artist had an affair with her colleague Tapio Tapiovaara, a little later she started a relationship with the journalist Atos Virtanen. The man was the editor of a social democratic publication, as well as a member of parliament. For some time they were even engaged. But Jansson was adamant about the issues of marriage and children, so the couple broke up. This erroneous connection was the last straw, after which Tove realized that she was attracted to women.
After the war, the woman met director Vivica Badler, they began dating. Both girls were incredibly happy in a relationship, but Tuve's chosen one was married, in addition, homosexuality was not approved in Finland of that period. But their love forever remained in the work about the Moomins, which was called "The Wizard's Hat". Even after the end of the novel, they continued communication and creative collaboration. In 1951, the former lovers traveled together.
The next girl, who became the fate of Jansson, met her at a party. The artist Tuulikki Pietilä invited Tuve to listen to jazz recordings, after which they were inseparable. The writer fell in love without memory, she repeatedly dedicated lines to her new girl. This feeling inspired her to create new stories about the Moomins. It is noteworthy that every important person in the life of Tuva was sooner or later captured in books.
Autumn 1959 loving women went on a long journey across Europe. They celebrated Christmas in Paris, nine years later the couple returned to the beautiful city. On June 27, 2001, at the age of 86, the writer died of a cerebral hemorrhage. She was buried in Finland.
Love to various types art was passed on to her literally by inheritance, because both of her parents also belonged to the creative world - Tove's mother was a fairly well-known illustrator, and her father was a skilled sculptor. Even both younger brothers Tove, having matured, chose professions related to creativity: Per-Olof chose an interesting profession for himself as a photographer, and Lars chose to follow in the footsteps of his mother and older sister, becoming an artist.
Childhood and work of Tove Jansson
At the age of ten, Tove's mother Signe attracted her to compose illustrations for a popular children's magazine in which her good friend worked.
Despite such a young age, Tove successfully coped with the work, almost better than her older and more experienced fellow illustrators. When Tuva was fifteen years old, she went to further study art in a specialized college in Sweden. After graduating from the College of Art, she decides to do an internship at several art schools in Germany, Italy and France in order to become more familiar with the specifics artistic skill different countries. Upon graduation, Tuve returned to her homeland and continued to illustrate various books, as well as the production of cartoons to order.
Moomin trolls Tove Jansson
She could hardly imagine what a surge of popularity awaited her at the turn of the 50s and 60s with the release of a book series about the mysterious creatures of the Moomin trolls, the inhabitants of Moomin Valley. The fame brought to Tuva by stories about Moomin evoked rather contradictory feelings in the writer: on the one hand, Tuva did not feel a special talent for writing, because she was much more inspired by creating pictures than writing stories, on the other hand, it was fairy tales about Moomins gave Tuva the opportunity to become famous all over the world.Increased attention to her person weighed on Tuva, but her great popularity gave Tuva a chance to earn huge fees, thanks to which she was able to get herself a personal island, on which Tuva often found solitude from annoying correspondents. Jansson never took her career as a Moomin writer and illustrator seriously, but this topic was incredibly interesting to society and brought in huge incomes, so over time, Tuve gladly turned Moomin stories into a family business, shifting all the responsibilities for illustrating comics to her younger brother Lars, who devoted twenty years of his life to these interesting and mysterious creatures. Thanks to such well-known works, in Finland Tuva acquired the status of a practically national hero who made a huge contribution to world culture. Tove Jansson died in June 2001 from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 86. 
Despite the fact that a lot of time has passed since the day of her death, the echoes of the glory of her works are still alive. Moomin trolls are interesting not only for the children's audience, but also for a huge number of adults these days. In 2002, the Tove Jansson Literary Prize was officially approved in Finland.
Personal life of Tove Jansson
Few people know that the popular children's writer Tove Jansson, having stepped over the threshold of her thirtieth birthday, realized her attachment not only to men, but also to female gender. Tove Jansson openly declared her bisexuality, and although society generally treated this phenomenon negatively, hardly anyone had any complaints about Tuva herself, because her personal life paled in comparison with her talent. In 1956, Tuve began a relationship with the little-known artist Tuulikki Pietilä, which lasted 45 years until the writer's death. According to the will, it was Pietilya who inherited all the property that belonged to Tuva, and the copyright for literary works passed to Tuva's niece, Sophia Jansson (daughter of Lars).Tove Jansson(Swede. Tove Jansson), Finnish-Swedish pronunciation of the name(inf.) ) is a well-known Finnish writer, artist, illustrator. Gained worldwide fame thanks to her books about the Moomins. She wrote in Swedish.
Jansson was born into a bohemian family: her mother is the prominent artist Signe Hammarsten, a book illustrator who came to Finland from Sweden; father - a recognized sculptor Viktor Jansson. Tove was the first child in the family. Her brother Per-Olof (b. 1920) later became a photographer, and another brother Lars (1926-2000) an artist.
On the maternal side, Tove belonged to the ancient Swedish family of Hammarshten, from which many prominent statesmen and simply famous people came out. Interestingly, Jansson, who often mentioned her mother in books and interviews, spoke very little about her father. Much is known about her Swedish relatives and very little about her Finnish relatives on her father's side. As a child, Tove spent every summer in Sweden with her grandmother, in the town of Blide, not far from Stockholm.
“The most beautiful thing was that the sea was very close. And although it was not visible from the lawn near the house where my friends and I played, if suddenly during the games we suddenly calmed down, the sound of the surf reached us, ”recalled Tove.
At the age of 15, Tove Jansson leaves to study in Sweden, having received a diploma from the Faculty of Fine Arts. College of Arts (English), she is undergoing an internship at art schools in France, Germany, Italy. By this time, in her homeland, she had already achieved some recognition, since almost from the age of 10 she had been illustrating for a popular children's magazine, the editor-in-chief of which was a good friend of her parents.
After completing his studies abroad, Tove returns home and begins to illustrate books and draw cartoons commissioned by various publications.
Jansson is world famous thanks to the book series about the Moomin trolls: charming creatures that live in the idyllic Moomin Valley. These books, illustrated by Jansson herself, broke all records in popularity in the 1950s and 60s. They sold in millions of copies and were published all over the world. For example, The Wizard's Hat alone has been translated into 34 languages, including Japanese, Thai, and Farsi.
In total, Jansson wrote 8 stories about the Moomins (“Little Trolls and a Big Flood”, “Moomin and the Comet”, “The Wizard's Hat”, “Dangerous Summer”, “Moominpappa's Memoirs”, “Magic Winter”, “Papa and the Sea", "At the End of November"), one collection of short stories "The Invisible Child", 4 picture books ("Dangerous Journey", "What's Next", "Who Will Comfort the Baby", "The Fraudster in the Moomin House" ). Jansson personally adapted her books for the theatre. Based on Dangerous Summer, she first wrote the play "Moomin-trolls backstage", and then the libretto for the musical "Moomin Opera".
To the popularity that fell upon her, Jansson had a double feeling. On the one hand, she was annoyed by the excessive commercialization of her work, on the other hand, it was the huge income received from all kinds of Moomin-themed products (T-shirts, caps, posters, badges) that allowed her to rent and then buy out the Klovharun Island in the Gulf of Finland, where she often hid from journalists and annoying admirers.
The worldwide success of "The Wizard's Hat" brought Jansson to the attention of the Associated Press, from which she received a letter with the following words: "Wonderful creatures created by you could be the heroes of the comic book that we would like to print." Tuva was offered a contract for seven years. She gladly agreed: the contract for the publication of the comic book guaranteed her a stable income. Jansson's entourage condemned her: all her friends felt that she had sold her talent to Western mass culture. In addition, drawing children's comics was considered humiliating in a bohemian environment. Tove herself believed that poverty was worse than any humiliation. The first comic book appeared in the London newspaper The Evening News on September 20, 1954. At its peak, the Moomin-themed comic Jansson was sold in 17 countries and published in 58 editions.
Initially, Jansson personally drew each strip of the comic, but she soon got bored with this work, and she passed it on to her brother Lars, who invented and drew Moomin comics non-stop for 20 years, turning them into a very profitable business.
Amazingly, Jansson herself always emphasized that she was an artist first and foremost, and did not take her literary work very seriously. However, her paintings have always attracted much less attention than books about the Moomins.
Among the works of Jansson as an artist, the most famous are:
- frescoes in the Helsinki City Hall building (1947)
- wall painting in the building of the city hall of Hamina (1952)
- wall painting in the building of the secondary school in the city of Karya (1953)
- painting of the altar in the church of Teuva (1954)
Over the years, the popularity of the Moomin books did not decline, but, on the contrary, only grew. Books by Tove Jansson attract the attention of not only children, but also adult readers, and even scientists. On the work of Jansson, many dissertations were defended, her fairy tales were subjected to semiotic and psychoanalytic analysis. In her books, echoes of Zen Buddhism and Christianity are found, references to the philosophy of Kant.
The celebration of Jansson's 80th birthday in 1994 turned into a state event comparable in scale and pathos to Independence Day. The country celebrated the birthday of the adored author with fireworks and festive processions. Jansson was celebrated as a national hero.
In June 2001, the writer died from a massive brain hemorrhage.
On the day of Jansson's funeral, national mourning was declared in Finland. The President of the country, addressing the writer's relatives with condolences, said that "Tove Jansson's work is the biggest contribution of Finland to the world treasury of culture after Kalevala and Sibelius."
Awards received by Tove Jansson:
- "Niels Holgerson Award" for the best children's writer of the year (1953)
- G.H. Andersen Medal for contribution to the development of children's literature (1966)
- Swedish Academy of Arts Award (1972)
- Golden Presidential Medal of Finland (1976)
- Honorary Doctorate in Art History from the University of Helsinki (1978)
- Selma Lagerlöf Prize for Literature (1993)
- Title of Honorary Professor of the Republic of Finland (1995)
- American-Scandinavian Cultural Foundation Literary Award for contributions to the arts (1996)
Since 2002, the Tove Jansson Literary Prize has been awarded in Finland.
In addition to Swedish and Finnish (which were native to her), Tove Jansson was fluent in English, French, and read German with a dictionary.
Personal life
In her youth, Tove Jansson communicated a lot and actively with the opposite sex, and at one time was even engaged to journalist Atos Virtanen. For reasons that still remain a mystery, the engagement was called off (presumably by Virtanen himself).
Having stepped over the milestone of 35 years, Jansson realized her bisexuality and since then maintained close relationships exclusively with women. At that time in Finland, in a bohemian environment, same-sex relationships were considered acceptable, although society as a whole had a negative attitude towards people of non-traditional orientation.
Since 1956, the artist Tuulikki Pietilä (1917-2009) has become Jansson's permanent partner. Jansson and Pietilä lived together for 45 years. Tuulikki became the prototype of the contemplative and philosophical Tuu Tikki from Jansson's story "Magic Winter" - a fact that Pietilä was very proud of. More than once in an interview, she said: “Do you know that Tuu Tikki is me? Tove wrote this character off of me.”
For a long time, they managed to successfully hide their connection. To interviewers' questions about her personal life, Jansson invariably answered that she was a principled opponent of the institution of marriage and did not want to have children for philosophical reasons. Jansson and Pietilä were open about their relationship at a press conference in 1993.
According to Jansson's will, it was Pietilä who inherited the property owned by women (two apartments in Helsinki and the island of Klovharun). The copyright for the books passed to the niece of Sofia Jansson (daughter of Lars).
Already in the 1960s, Tove Jansson became a millionaire. Huge income from the sale of related rights (theatrical productions, Moomin souvenirs) quickly made Jansson one of the richest women in Finland. However, she continued to live a modest life until her death: she used public transport, went shopping herself to a store near her home, and personally answered most of the letters from her readers.
Klovharun Island
Klovaharun Island, located in the Gulf of Finland, was the summer residence of Tove Jansson and her artist partner from 1964 to 1998 Tuulikki Pietilä where they spent every summer. The island is currently uninhabited and is only accessible to visitors with organized tours during the summer months. On Klovharun, you can visit Jansson's house, which has an exhibition of her paintings.
Moomin trolls and other works
There are several legends about how the image of Moomintroll arose, but they all agree that its graphic incarnation appeared, at the earliest, in 1930. The first image of Moomintroll was published in a cartoon in the Finnish magazine Garm in 1940. The first book in the Moomin series was published in 1945 (Little Trolls and the Great Flood, written and illustrated in 1938), but her second story Moomintroll and the Comet (1946) gained popularity. .), in which it was given detailed description Moomin Valley (Moomin-dalen), which became the setting for most of the subsequent stories. The next book - "The Wizard's Hat" (1949) - gave impetus to the "moomin boom" in many countries of the world.
Tove Jansson has also illustrated books by Tolkien and Lewis Carroll.
Jansson wrote a number of novels and short stories that had nothing to do with the Moomins.
Features of the creative manner
Despite the fact that the trolls were borrowed by the writer from Swedish fairy tales, their image was significantly reworked, and in general, we can say that folklore had a minimal impact on Tove Jansson's work. The life of the inhabitants of the Moomin Valley imitates the life of Jansson's family from the point of view of a child - it is not known where the food and household items come from, the neighbors of the Moomin trolls, although grouchy, are most often friendly. In later works, Jansson's heroes seem to grow up and understand that the world is actually different - cruel and indifferent (see, for example, the story with red ants or the story about sea horses in the story "Papa and the Sea"). If earlier Morra was just a fairy-tale monster, then later her image is concretized and even becomes an expression of the injustice of the world order: “It was so easy to imagine someone who never gets warm, whom no one loves and who destroys everything around him” (“Dad and the Sea”) . Nevertheless, the author does not seek to push the reader to the conclusion that life in this world is filled with fear and torment. The last of the Moomin books ends with them returning to their home.
At the heart of the artistic world of Tove Jansson lies the image of a house - a house in which the light is always on, loved ones are waiting for you, ready tasty food and a warm bed. This is an unshakable citadel of security and love, one thought of which allows you to overcome any adversity and where you can always return. So, Moomin-mother calmly waits for the end of the protracted wanderings of Moomin-troll at the set table (“The Comet Arrives”).
Another important motif in Tove Jansson's work is freedom. Everyone has the right to creative self-expression, since nature itself is free in its manifestations, all the world. The character can only limit his freedom of action in accordance with his own ideas of duty, but has no right to impose these ideas on others: Snufkin hates the Park Keeper, where it is forbidden to run, laugh, smoke, but at the same time he voluntarily abandons his plans when he is forced take care of a few tiny orphan cubs ("Dangerous Summer").
And of course, one of the defining themes of the Moomin series is the theme of loneliness. Moomintroll is lonely (this is especially felt in "Magic Winter"), Snufkin is lonely, and many other characters are lonely in the depths of their souls. The physical embodiment of this "loneliness of the soul" was Morra: infinitely lonely, icy, incomprehensible and frightening in the first books and "thawed" in the last. Moomintroll is afraid to seem ridiculous, suffers from the ridicule of Mu, experiences a lot of internal conflicts alone with himself. In "Magic Winter" he first felt loneliness so acutely, and in the book "Papa and the Sea" he matured and learned to be alone.
Moomin park
On an island near the city of Naantali (20 minutes by bus route 7 or 6 from Turku) there is a Moominland theme park dedicated to the heroes of the Moomin book series. The park operates in summer time and closes in the last week of August, when "the Moomins go into hibernation."
cultural significance
In Finland, the Jansson characters (the Moomin family, Snufkin, Sniff, Baby Mu, etc.) are very popular. A variety of souvenirs on this topic are in demand. Jansson's characters have become an integral part of modern popular culture. Revenues from the sale of products using images of the Moomins make up the same part of the state budget in Finland as the tax deductions from Nokia Corporation.
Tove Jansson. Collection of booksTove Jansson is known worldwide for her Moomin books, which have been translated into more than 30 languages. Moomin and his family and friends have traveled to all corners of the world in the form of picture stories and television cartoons. Tove Jansson is traditionally revered as the author of fairy tales and, in particular, as the creator of the peculiar world of the Moomins. She is the most translated Finnish writer: books about Moomin are read in more than 30 languages of the world, and they have earned their place in the world of fairy-tale literature along with The Little Prince, Winnie the Pooh and the works of Astrid Lindgren.
Tove Marika Jansson was born in Helsinki at 11:55 am on Saturday 9 August 1914 in a creative family. Her father Viktor Jansson (1886-1958) was a sculptor, and her mother Signe Hammarsten (1882-1970) was an artist who moved to Finland from Sweden after her marriage. Tove's parents met in 1910 in Paris. After 3 years they got married. Signe painted stamps and worked for the radical anti-fascist magazine GARM. Her parents belonged to the Swedish linguistic minority in Finland and the family heritage - art, creativity and tolerance - is later noted in Tove's stories, in which she showed an understanding of the bohemian lifestyle and respect for individuality. As a child, Tove went to Blide (Sweden) for the summer to stay with her maternal grandmother. Tove's younger brothers, Per Olov and Lars, made their debut as writers in the 1940s. Later, Lars began to create stories in pictures, and Per Olov became a photographer.
Tove Jansson's parents worked hard, they devoted their whole lives to art, but at the same time, Viktor Jansson knew a lot about parties and their house often became a place for fun meetings. Tuve wrote about how the parties went in her autobiographical book “The Sculptor's Daughter”:
“I love daddy's parties. They can go on for many nights in a row, and I like to wake up and go back to sleep and feel the smoke and music lull me to sleep, and then suddenly there is a sudden cry, piercing cold through the heat, right down to the soles of my feet.
It’s not worth looking at all this, because then what you invent yourself disappears. It always happens. You look down on them as they sit on the sofa and chairs or slowly walk around the living room.
Mom doesn't feast with them, she makes sure that kerosene lamp did not smoke in the bedroom. The bedroom is our only real room besides the kitchen; I mean there is a door there. But there is no oven. Therefore, the kerosene lamp burns all night. If you open the door, then tobacco smoke enters the room, and Per Olof starts an asthma attack. Since I had a brother, it has become much more difficult with feasts, but mom and dad still try to arrange everything in the best possible way.”
Where did Moomintroll come from?
According to Sophia Jansson, Tove's niece, the story of Moomintroll's birth is as follows. On the island where the Jansson family spent every summer, the toilet was not in the house, but outside. From the inside it was upholstered with cardboard. On this cardboard, all family members loved to draw and write, there was a very stormy correspondence, for example, they thought about philosophical problems with their brothers. One day my brother wrote a story there about Kant. Tove could not come up with something in response to him and drew some kind of creature. Then she said that it was the ugliest creature she could think of. This was the first Moomintroll.
For the first time, the Moomintroll figurine, as Jansson's personal emblem-signature, was published on her anti-Hitler poster in the late 30s.
Four months of the year, the whole Jansson family spent in a house on the island in Pellinki, which is 50 kilometers from Porvoo. They rented a cottage from local fishermen at the end of May and returned to the city at the beginning of September. About 300 people live on this island. It is this island cozy house, where a friendly family lived, the forests around the house, the sea and tiny islands served as the prototype of the world, later described by Tuva in books about mummy trolls.
As a child, Tove's friend was Erick Tawaststjerna, who, as an adult, became a music critic and biographer of Jean Sibelius. Tove did not like to go to school. She said that school was boring and she "forgot everything about it, including why she was afraid of it." In the evenings, Tove sat in front of the fire in the studio and listened to her mother's stories about Moses and Isaac, about people who yearn for their country, or get lost, and then find their way. That most people often feel a little lonely.
At the age of fifteen, Tove moved to Stockholm (Sweden) where he studied fine arts at Tekniska Skolan, a professional institute from 1930 to 1933, and then returned to Finland, where he studied at the drawing school of the Finnish Fine Arts Association "Atheneum" in Helsinki from 1933 to 1936. In 1938 she continued her studies at the École d'Adrien in Paris.
Tove began her career as an illustrator at the age of 14, when her drawings were first published in the children's section of Allas Kronika magazine. The politically liberal satirical magazine Garm, popular in Swedish-speaking intellectual circles, began publishing Jansson's drawings in 1929, and the collaboration continued until the magazine closed in 1953. The Moomintroll of that time looked like a white creature with a long narrow nose and was called Snork.
In 1930 Tuva traveled to Germany, Italy and France. And from 1932 she participated in exhibitions in Finland and abroad. Her first private exhibition was held in 1943 in Helsinki. Tove designed about a hundred magazine covers, illustrated Swedish publications such as Lucifer. In addition, Tuve worked on advertising, advertising signs, postcards. From 1934 to 1940, Tove wrote stories that were published in magazines and Christmas editions. Daily newspapers feature her travel stories and the art world. Jansson's second exhibition in 1946 at the Bocksbacka Gallery was commercially successful and received good feedback critics. In the early 1940s, Jansson was considered one of the most outstanding young artists in Finland.
The first book, entitled Smatrollen och den stora oversvamningen (Little trolls and a big flood), appeared in 1945 in Sweden, and only in 1991 was translated into Finnish. Tove began writing this story in 1939 during the Soviet-Finnish Winter War in order to escape even for a moment the bleakness of wartime. But this book did not great success and was the last of all the Moomin stories to be translated into English.
In 1946, the book Mumitrollet och kometen (Moomin and the comet) was published, in 1948 the book Trollkarlens hatt (The Wizard's Hat). And after that a real big success comes to Tuva.
In 1947, Atos Wirtanen, a friend of Tove Jansson and editor-in-chief of the Swedish newspaper Ny tid (New Time), published in Finland, invited her to make a series of satirical political comics about Moomin. It was Athos Virtanen who served as the prototype of Snufkin, he constantly wore a green hat and considered it his talisman. On October 1, 1947, in an article about the socialist youth of Czechoslovakia and the activities of the Finnish People's Democratic Party, an image of Moomintroll under an umbrella was printed. Two days later, the first page of the comics was published on the front page, announcing the upcoming series. The same week, an article about Jansson was published. And so, starting from October 3, 1947, Moomin comics will be published every Friday until April 2, 1948. Each strip consisted of six cells. In total, Tove drew 26 stripes. The reason for the termination of publications was harsh criticism from the opposition, who accused Tuva of spreading liberal-bourgeois ideas.
In January 1952, Jansson entered into a comic book publishing contract with Associated Newspapers. Jansson was delighted with the offer, as it freed her from financial worries and made it possible to devote more time to creativity. September 20, 1954 on the pages of "The evening news" (London) was printed the first Moomin comic. In September 1956, Moomin Day was celebrated in Helsinki, sponsored by the Associated Press. In 1959, Tove, finally tired of the Moomin theme, terminated the contract with the agency.
She says that “At first it was very fun and easy to work. I drew whatever came to my mind. Over time, a critical attitude to their work came, and then it became just hard work. When I found out that the publisher agreed to terminate the contract with me, I was happy! I went for a walk in the forest, climbed a tree, and there, on the tree, I suddenly felt so strong and free that I suddenly wanted to write another book. Thus was born the idea for the book Who Will Comfort Little Knutt? According to Tuva, this book was the easiest for her to write about the Moomins, she literally composed and illustrated it in one breath.
Tove wrote her last Moomin book Sent i november (Late November) in 1970 after her mother's death. The Moomin family is not present in it, they have disappeared and no one knows where. This book ended the series of stories about the Moomin, although Tove said that she would be glad to return to work with them.
In general, all the Moomin characters bear a strong resemblance to Jansson's own family - they were bohemian, lived close to nature, were tolerant of the creatures around them, and loved what their mother cooked for them. Sometimes the characters of Jansson were quite sinister, like, for example, Hemuli, who personified officials, or strange Hattifnatts, who move from nowhere, where and for what purpose - a threatening crowd. Novelist Alison Lurie described Morra - a dark, hilly creature - as “a kind of walking manifestation of Scandinavian obscurity; everything she touches dies, and the ground freezes where she sits.” (Guardian, June 30, 2001)
Although Jansson gained worldwide fame with her Moomin characters, she herself saw herself primarily as an artist. Her first large wall painting was made for the Kaupunginkellari restaurant in 1947. This was followed by a number of other works, including paintings for the children's hospital in Helsinki. In 1992-93, the Amos Anderson Art Museum presented Jansson's paintings in a large exhibition.
In 1956, Tuve met Tuulikki Pietila (Tuulikki Pietila 02/18/1917 - 02/23/2009), who became a faithful companion of Tuva's life. She was a graphic artist, a professor. Her personality inspired the character of Too-Tikki from the novella Trollvinter (Magic Winter). For many years, Tuva and Tuulikki spent the warm months of the year in a house on their own island, Kluvhar, 80 kilometers from Helsinki. They lived there black cat named Psipsi. In 1995, Tove and Tuulikki decide not to travel to the island anymore due to health problems. Jansson donates the island to the state. Now in the house of Tuve and Tuulikki their museum is equipped, which is open every summer for tourists. In 1996, the autobiographical book “Pictures from the Island” was published, written by Tuve in collaboration with Tuulikki.
