1873 -1917 · Finland, symbolism and the inner world

Wounded angels, figures of Death and familiar creatures compose a silent symbolism in Hugo Simberg where fragility, care and worry remain open to interpretation.

Hugo Gerhard Simberg was born in Hamina, Finland, in 1873. He first studied at the drawing school of the Friends of Art in Viipuri, then at that of the Finnish Society of Fine Arts in Helsinki between 1893 and 1895. Dissatisfied with academic teaching, he asked Akseli Gallen-Kallela to receive him as a private student. In Ruovesi, between 1895 and 1897, he found a freer setting where nature, legends and personal experience could nourish the image. A trip to London and Paris in 1896 broadened his horizons. A trip to London and Paris in 1896 broadened his horizons. A trip to London and Paris in 1896 broadened his horizons. A trip to London and Paris in 1896 broadened his horizons. A trip to London and Paris in 1896 broadened his horizons. A trip to London and Paris in 1896 broadened his horizons. A trip to London and Paris in 1896 broadened his horizons. A trip to London and Paris in 1896 broadened his horizons. A trip to London and Paris in 1896 broadened his horizons. A trip to London and Paris in 1896 broadened his horizons. A trip to London and Paris in 1896 broadened his horizons. A trip to London and Paris in 1896 no longer just a threat, but an attentive gardener of a domain located between two worlds. Simberg thus develops a vocabulary of recurring characters - devils, angels, peasants, frost and Death - whom he treats without fixing their meaning. This indeterminacy reaches an exceptional intensity in The Wounded Angel, painted in 1903. Two boys carry a blindfolded angel on a stretcher, whose wing bears a trace of blood. The real landscape of Helsinki and the frontal gaze of the boy on the right anchor the vision in an almost documentary reality, while the artist refuses to impose the explanation. The work invites each viewer to construct their own relationship to the wound, to the compassion and silence. From 1904 to 1906, Simberg transposed several motifs into the vast decor of Tampere Cathedral, created with Magnus Enckell. The Wounded Angel and The Garden of Death become frescoes; snakes, garlands, stained glass windows and young bearers inscribe his imagination at the heart of a religious building, not without provoking debate. Prolific painter, engraver, designer and photographer, Simberg died prematurely in 1917. His work remained one of the peaks of Finnish symbolism because it transformed fantastic figures into immediately sensitive human experiences. The "Hugo Simberg" selection notably compares The Wounded Angel and The Garden of Death. His reading favors the story.

Simberg gives substance to the questions without giving them an answer: the angel suffers, Death heals, and the spectator must inhabit the silence between the two.