Helena Sofia (Helene) Schjerfbeck (pronounced [heˈleːn ˈʃæ̌rvbek] ⓘ; 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.

At the beginning of her career she often produced historical paintings, such as the Wounded Warrior in the Snow (1880), At the Door of Linköping Jail in 1600 (1882) and The Death of Wilhelm von Schwerin (1886).

Historical paintings were usually the realm of male painters, as was experimentation with modern influences and French radical naturalism, and her works from mostly the 1880s did not receive a favourable reception until later in her life.

[1] Her work starts with a dazzlingly skilled, somewhat melancholic version of late-19th-century academic realism…it ends with distilled, nearly abstract images in which pure paint and cryptic description are held in perfect balance.

(Roberta Smith, New York Times, November 27, 1992)[2]Schjerbeck's birthday, July 10, is Finland's national day for the painted arts.

[1] In 1866, aged 4, she fell down some stairs injuring her hip, which prevented her from attending school and left her with a limp for the rest of her life.

She showed talent at an early age, and at eleven years old in 1873 she was enrolled at the Finnish Art Society School of Drawing.

She continued her education, with Westermarck and paid for by Professor Georg Asp [fi], at a private academy run by Adolf von Becker, which utilised the University of Helsinki drawing studio.

That summer Schjerfbeck spent time at Sjundby Manor, owned by her aunt on her mother's side Selma Printz and her husband Thomas Adlercreutz.

[1] In Paris, Schjerfbeck painted with Helena Westermarck, then left to study with Léon Bonnat at Mme Trélat de Vigny's studio.

During this time Schjerbeck produced still lifes and landscape paintings, as well as portraits, such as that of her mother, local school girls and women workers, and also self-portraits, and she became a modernist painter.

For about a year, Schjerfbeck moved to a farm in Tenala to avoid the December 1939–March 1940 Winter War, but returned to Ekenäs in the middle of 1940.

Executed in Realist style, the painting shows the clear influence of Schjerfbeck's stay in Paris, where she had expressed admiration for Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, and Mary Cassatt.

[15] Art forger Veli Seppä [fi] was an admirer of her works, and writes of his time forging them: "By encroaching on Schjerfbeck I felt like I had violated something sacred.

Fellow forger and self-admitted seller of 60 Schjerfbeck counterfeits Jouni Ranta was more critical and considered that her fame was undeserved.