Tove Jansson © Per Olov Jansson
— Philip Pullman Tove Jansson, Finnish-Swedish writer and artist, was born in Helsinki in 1914 to a sculptor father and an artist mother. She grew up in a bohemian and creative family who were part of the Swedish-speaking Finnish minority.
for a part of Tove’s literary output; she went on to write a series of classic novels and short stories to establish herself as Scandinavia’s best loved author to date. Tove Jansson’s work reflects the tenets of her life: her love of family, of nature, and her insistence on freedom to pursue her art. “Work and love” was the motto she chose for herself, and her approach to both was joyful and uncompromising.
Tove soon proved herself to be a natural artist, having her first drawing published at the age of 15 in Garm, a liberal anti-fascist magazine. Tove became one of Finland’s most notable young artists in the 1930s and 1940s, admired in Nordic art circles as a painter, illustrator and later also as a cartoonist.
An important place for both Tove and her works was the island of Klovharun in the Pellinki archipelago, where she spent summers with her lifelong partner, the artist and professor Tuulikki Pietilä. During her career, Tove Jansson was awarded several important prizes, including the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the Swedish Academy Award and the Finnish Award for State Literature three times. Her novels and short stories have been translated into over 30 languages.
Tove Jansson achieved worldwide fame as the creator of the Moomins, a collection of stories written and illustrated between 1945 and 1970. The Moomin books have been translated into more than 55 languages and remain in print all over the world today. But Moomins only count
In recent decades, Tove’s work has enjoyed a true revival in several countries. Contemporary authors have referred to her as an inspiration, including Ali Smith and Esther Freud who have both written introductions to English-language editions of her books.
© Sami Kuokkanen
“Tove Jansson was a genius, a woman of profound wisdom and great artistry.”
TOVE – the acclaimed biopic about Tove Jansson Tove, the first fictional feature film about Tove Jansson, premiered in Finland in October 2020 and has since been sold to over 50 countries. It also won seven awards at Finland’s national film awards, the Jussi gala.