Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson overcame the darkness of an early life to become a bright and shining light. She was born in 1914 to a family of artists in Helsinki, Finland. Her father was a sculptor in the classical tradition. Her mother illustrated magazines and accepted commissions for graphic designs, prompting Tove’s own early drawings. In the summers, the family left their crowded city apartment and went out to an island in the Finnish archipelago. It was difficult to get to, but they all loved the sea.

War darkened the close family life, however. Finland fought a civil war in 1918, affecting their father’s personality. The country was squeezed between Soviet Russia on one side and the growing Nazi presence on the other. Initially the Finns cooperated with the Nazis against a Soviet invasion, but then the bombing began. Tove’s younger brother served in the army during World War II. Tove’s letters reflect how dispiriting this time period was.

Tove went to art school, but abandoned it for work with tutor Sam Vanni. She regarded her painting as most important, but she also created a family she called the Moomintrolls, writing their stories and drawing them to sublimate her own feelings. The Moomintroll family had the personalities of Tove’s own family with added characters reflecting events in Tove’s life. Catastrophes happen in the books, but the family comes through, with tolerance for each other’s quirks.

In 1944 the Nazis were driven out, leaving a trail of destruction. Finland retained its independence, but lost some of its territory to the Soviets. After the war came a time of self-discovery for Tove. At 30, she was clear that she did not want a conventional family life, with children who might have to go to war. Art was the most important thing. Due to conflicts with her father, she found her own studio in the middle of Helsinki. She and her friends danced, talked and stayed up all night. Tove fell in love with Viveke Bandler, but the affair was secret and brief. Viveke was married and same-sex relationships were illegal in Finland at the time.

Tove published several children’s books about the Moomintroll family, leading to a request from a British publisher for a cartoon strip series about them. Beginning in 1954, a huge advertising campaign launched the strip which brought Tove money and fame. For seven years she produced six strips a week before becoming exhausted and handing the strip off to her younger brother Lars.

About this time, when Tove feared she was too busy to do fine art, she met and fell in love with the artist Tuulikki Pietila. Tuulikki had a studio near Tove’s. They could work separately and cross to each other’s place through a passage in the attic of the buildings. Longing for a simpler life, Tove and Tuulikki built a house on an island far out in the Finnish archipelago, Klovharu. Without plumbing or electricity, the house had windows on all four sides so they could watch storms roll in from any direction and boats approaching.

Tove began to write adult fiction, including The Summer Book, written in 1971, just after her mother’s death. The book shares the perceptions of a six-year-old and her grandmother who are spending a summer on an island. They are shaken by very specific natural events, and so is the reader.

Tove and Tuulikki took a trip around the world in 1971, collecting jazz records and spending time in New Orleans. Every summer they lived on their remote island until 1992 when their boat broke up in a storm. Tove had cancer in her last years and died in 2001.

I first met Tove Jansson through the wonderful Summer Book. I also read a profusely illustrated biography of her, Tove Jansson: Work and Love, by Tuula Karjalainen [2014]. Truly a creative sprite who always took time for delight and love, you can watch an hour-long BBC documentary on Tove here.