The walls of the bohemian studio home are covered with paintings by family friends, and the shelves are filled with books of all kinds. Art is work, an attitude towards life, and a passion. The connection between livelihood and artistic work is clear from the start. Faffan and his colleagues have parties that continue into the small hours. Ham shares her contacts with her daughter and helps her gain a foothold in the newspaper world. Ham assists Faffan in plaster casting the brothers start writing, and the family members become each other’s critics. The family move into a newly established Lallukka Artists’ Home in Helsinki’s Töölö district and create a collective of their own. For Tove Jansson, it is natural to follow in her parents’ footsteps with their complete dedication to artistic work. She wants to help Ham support their family. Tove Jansson has a strong desire to tell stories and create, but not everything is joyful. In her letters, she writes of amusing things but also about homesickness and the sense of responsibility she feels at the time. She designs, draws croquis (figure sketches) and develops her love of colour. ‘Once upon a time there was a little girl who was terribly pretty and her mummy liked her so awfully much …’Īt the Technical School the adolescent Tove Jansson matures as an artist. Tove Jansson’s uncles relish telling ghost stories, and, like Ham, are adventurous and full of life. She also makes lengthy visits to her grandparents, who live on the Swedish island of Bildö with their large family in a house with a big porch, surrounded by a flourishing garden.

At the age of sixteen, she moves to her uncle’s home in Stockholm to begin art studies at the Tekniska skolan (Technical School). Another family central to Tove Jansson live on the other side of the Gulf of Bothnia.

Tove jansson art