Three sisters and a son - seven portraits by Albert Edelfelt

 

"Annie", 1883. Alexandra Elisabeth Adelaide Edelfelt (25 May 1866, Helsinki - 10 September 1934, Helsinki - 68 years old).

Ellen, 1876. Ellen Edelfelt (25 May 1859, Porvoo - 5 October 1876, Helsinki - 17 years old). She died in the same year as her portrait was painted.

Berta, 1876. Berta Edelfelt (7 March 1869, Hämeenlinna - 4 February 1934, Helsinki - 64 years old).

Berta, 1884.

 "Good Friends" (Berta and her stuffed dog Capi), 1881.

Erik, 1889. Erik Albert Johan Edelfelt (23 January or November 1888 - 29 May 1910, Montpellier, France - 22 years old).

Erik, 1898.

Erik at home in Kilo, 1898.

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Albert Gustaf Aristides Edelfelt (21 July 1854, Porvoo - 18 August 1905, Porvoo), Finnish painter whose naturalistic, Realist work helped to made Finnish culture visible abroad, at a time before Finland had gained full independence. Born the son of Swedish-speaking Finns, when he was fifteen his father died, leaving his mother had to raise him and his younger sisters in straitened circumstances. He began his formal studies of art that same year at the Drawing School of the Finnish Art Society. He later studied history painting at the Antwerp Academy of Art, before becoming a pupil of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In Paris, he shared a studio with the American Julian Alden Weir. After several romantic relationships, he married Baroness Anna Elise "Ellan" de la Chapelle in 1888, and in the same year they had their only child, Erik. The marriage does not appear to have been a success. Always very close to his mother throughout his life - he sent her hundreds of letters when he was abroad - her death in 1901 affected him greatly. He, himself, died suddenly of heart failure four years later. His only child, his son Erik, died only five years after his father.