Hugo Backmansson

About the Portrait

This 1923 oil portrait by Finnish artist Hugo Backmansson captures a woman in profile as she sits reading a magazine. Her gaze appears abstracted, perhaps looking through a window where light illuminates her face. She wears a violet dress with gold trimmings, and a bouquet of violets in a glass vase on a table completes the intimate scene.

The painting demonstrates Backmansson's skill as a portraitist beyond his better-known military and North African subjects. The delicate rendering of light, the careful attention to costume detail, and the contemplative mood reflect his academic training at the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts and his seven decades of artistic practice.

Signed and dated in the upper right corner, this oil on canvas is housed in its original gilded carved wood frame and remains in very good condition with minor craquelure on the forehead and evidence of previous restoration, typical of paintings from this period.

About the Artist

Hugo Elias Backmansson (1860-1953) was a Finnish painter, military officer, battle painter, world traveler, and chess master. Born on April 17, 1860, in Paimio (then part of the Russian Empire), he studied at Turku Drawing School (1870-73) before pursuing officer training at the Cadet School of Fredrikshamn.

Backmansson served in the Izmailovsky regiment in St. Petersburg and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts there from 1894 to 1899, where he specialized in battle painting. In 1905, he participated in the Russo-Japanese War as a war reporter and battle painter, documenting military life with firsthand experience.

In 1898, Backmansson made his first trip to North Africa, where he fell in love with the light and colors of the region and returned many times throughout his career. He became known for his numerous depictions of military life and North African scenes in watercolor and oil, though he was also a tireless portraitist and landscape painter for seven decades.

Backmansson's works are held in significant collections, including Åbo Akademi, the Amos Anderson Art Museum, the Athenaeum Art Museum, Lahti Museum, Gösta Serlachius Museum, Turku Art Museum, Ett hem Museum, and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

The artist died on November 19, 1953, in Helsinki at the age of ninety-three, succumbing to a fall from a tramway.

Technical Details

Artist: Hugo Backmansson (1860-1953)
Signed: Upper right corner, dated 1923
Date: 1923
Medium: Oil on canvas
Condition: Very good condition, minor craquelure, previous restoration
Dimensions: 52 x 63 cm / 20½ x 24¾ in
Frame: 62 x 73 cm / 24½ x 28¾ in, original gilded carved wood, very good condition
Origin: Finland

An intimate portrait by a Finnish battle painter represented in the Hermitage.