The Moomins may not … have been how Jansson would have chosen her work to be defined. Their pottering around their flowery valley, and hibernating through the fierce Nordic winters until a messenger brings news of spring made her famous the world over, but they have completely overshadowed the reputation as a serious painter that she yearned for all her life, and which the Dulwich exhibition will try to rescue.
“The pictures are wonderful,” said the gallery’s director, Jennifer Scott. “I’ve surprised myself at how drawn I feel to them. She fits perfectly into one of the things we do best at Dulwich, which is to take a very unfamiliar name, or a name people think they know, and show a completely different aspect of their work.”
- Tove Jansson 1914 – 2001, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 25 October 2017 – 28 January 2018
