Tove Jansson 1914-2001, Exhibition, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London: 25 October 2017-28 January 2018

Tove Jansson has for many years been defined by her two-dimensional creations, the Moomins. Yet this idea of Jansson as an illustrator ignores all the other types of art that she produced during her career, let alone the complicated backstory which fed into them. To fix this, the Dulwich Picture Gallery turns Tove, often reduced to her cartoons, back into a real and multi-layered human being.

All the different shades of the artist are on show: she is presented as a daughter, lover, fighter, painter and satirist. We learn about her upbringing in Helsinki amongst a family of sculptors, painters and cartoonists, along with the difficulties and tensions within these personal relationships. We also get to see her more impressionistic work of the late 30s and early 40s, reflecting her travels to France and her love of Henri Matisse. Tove’s personality emerges most powerfully, however, with the self-portraits that she made during this time. In the ‘Lynx Boa’ and ‘The Smoking Girl’, Jansson paints herself as sassy, sophisticated and poised. In both pictures, she peers off into the distance coolly in a way which is at odds with her popular image as the ‘Mother of Moomins’.

Then there’s the abstract oil paintings of the 1960s. These wild canvases and frescoes capture landscapes inventively through bold brushstrokes and bright colours. The paint is piled on thick, giving the pieces a ferocity not seen in her other works. A highlight is the ‘Abstract Sea’ of 1963. Emerald, blue, grey and green all clash chaotically in a way which effectively mimics the movements of choppy waves.

Later on, her more recognisable work gets an airing. The exhibition starts with Jansson’s illustrations for ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Hunting of the Snark’. Already, in these earlier cartoons, there are traces of what’s to come: both Alice and Gollum have a bulgy-eyed, almost comic appearance to them. The Gallery also features her cartoons for ‘Garm’, a Finnish satirical magazine. Here, Jansson’s fiery opposition to fascism, war and communism comes out. On one cover, Hitler is depicted as a spoilt child, while the rest of the world bends over backwards to deliver him treats (an unmistakable reference to the policies of appeasement and submission which swept across Europe in the 1930s).

We finally get to see what such illustrations evolve into: the first Moomin story which Jansson wrote and illustrated in 1945, ‘The Moomins and the Great Flood’, along with the four picture books which followed them. The cartoons are clear, crisp and charming - you immediately see why they defined her career. Accompanying the drawings are some adorable Moomin models crafted by her soul-mate, Tuulikki Pietilä, who worked and lived with Jansson until her death. It’s a touching end to an exhibition which strives to put the character back into the cartoonist.

Many of the pictures featured are on loan from the Finnish National Gallery and a number of newly discovered drawings come from the British Cartoon Archive.

Dulwich Picture Gallery

Gallery Road, Dulwich SE21 7AD

Opening Hours

Tuesday - Sunday, 10.00 - 17.00

Closed on Mondays except Bank Holidays

By Ben Waters