Tyko Konstantin Sallinen

• Tyko Konstantin Sallinen : The Washerwomen, 1911, 154x136 cm, oil, canvas (A II 1083, Hoving) [© The Holders of Copyrights] (73.7 kB)

The sun shines brightly in the world of the washerwomen. The sky is a glaring blue, and the women's laughing cheeks are rosy red. Shining down from the clear sky, the sun-rays lend their golden hue to the girls' honey-red hair. Light even seems to radiate from within the hearts of the carefree girls.

At a quick glance, The Washerwomen looks rather carelessly painted; even the girls look coarse and sloppy at first. Flecks of white canvas show through the paint; the surface is broken and torn from being scraped by a shard of glass. Sallinen was rather a tempestuous painter. He cared little for commonly accepted notions of beauty. For him, honesty was beauty. He was accused of mocking humanity – how dare he paint girls with the faces of pigs! After all, who wants to look like a pig? Sallinen rather enjoyed the uproar. He wanted to make people see the world in a new way, to pause and take a long look at his paintings – if only out of sheer annoyance.

Tyko Konstantin Sallinen : The Washerwomen