Paris from a Window : Impressionism in Helena Westermarck's Short Story 'Aftonstämning' (1890)

Helena Westermarck (1857-1938) was a Finnish painter, critic and novelist. This article uses Westermarck’s short story ‘Aftonstämning’ (1890) as a springboard for the investigation of the concept and practice of ekphrasis in general, and in the context of impressionism in particular. Concomitantly, reading Westermarck’s story through impressionism reveals her strategy of adopting a very modern form to explore social divisions in the Parisian cityscape. Her writing is thus seen to constitute a writerly parallel to the ‘middle way’ found by the female Scandinavian artists of the time, whose access to the city life immortalised by male impressionists was limited by social convention. This is particularly evident in Westermarck’s use of point of view, iconic projection, framing and cropping. The article concludes by exposing the tensions between content and form in Westermarck’s interartistic transposition of visual elements, which contradicts the impressionist project to convey only sensory impressions, not ethical or social interest.