A Marxist Analysis of Ellen Thesleff’s Echo (1891)
painter Ellen Thesleff. When using the Marxist approach on Thesleff's Echo, one can analyze the socio-economic aspects of the painting and find a feminist critique of women's position at the time.
Ellen Thesleff was a Finnish painter during the early-modernist era and was active from the early 1890s to the late 1940s. She was born to a well-to-do musical family with a father that was an amateur painter.[1] Because of her social status and her father being a painter, Thesleff was able to take private painting lessons throughout her childhood. At the age of eighteen, she studied at the Finnish Art Society Drawing School and then moved to Paris to attend the Académie Colarossi.[2] Throughout her three-decade-long career, Thesleff created multiple renowned works of art, one of her most famous being Echo (1891).
There are many different approaches to analyzing art, usually through theories such as Marxism. Marxism is a method of analyzing society originated by Karl Marx, which focuses on the conflict between the working-class citizens and the capitalists.[3] The Marxist approach of studying art addresses the individual's economic and social conditions and believes that one's class affects every aspect of their life.[4] A lot of art from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries can be analyzed using this method, especially with some woman artists. One of these artists was the world-renowned Ellen Thesleff, and her painting Echo (1891) can be dissected using the Marxist approach.
Ellen Thesleff's Echo is a painting of a peasant girl yelling out into nature. She is dressed in modest and conventional clothing, holding a staff that might have been used for working the land. But the focus is not on the girl's appearance or the nature surrounding her; it is on her face. From focusing on her face, the viewer could see that she looks almost at ease. The question this brings up is why this peasant girl looks this way while yelling at the nature surrounding her. What is believed to be the reasoning behind this is that the peasant girl found her voice. The girl has realized that she is powerful and meaningful. And through this depiction of her, Thesleff portrays the peasant girl as superior. Even though she is of lower status, the power she finds in her voice proves to herself and the audience that she is superior and capable.
What is so beautiful about this piece is that Thesleff made it so that anyone could relate to it. The viewer could be anyone who feels lost, trapped, or powerless who needs to be reminded that they are essential. Making this work so relatable to anyone helps convey the message of no matter one's class or economic status, everyone is important and capable enough to find the power in their voice. But when analyzing the painting through the Marxist approach, one could see it as a direct critique of society's socio-economic structure at the time. When looking at Echo through this lens, one could depict the peasant girl as someone yelling out of anguish, yearning to be heard and feel significant in a society that does not care about people like her.
Since Thesleff was in France when she painted Echo, the peasant girl she painted was probably French; and life for working-class citizens in France during this time was challenging. Men, women, and children alike worked long, grueling hours in harsh conditions earning meager wages.[5] Therefore, it was nearly impossible for these people to afford necessities such as food or decent clothing. As a result of not being able to afford clothing, they were held back from opportunities extended to other members of society since they would always be distinguished from the bourgeois citizens.[6] So they would still be a member of the working class because they were hardly ever allowed to move up in society. So the aggravation these people felt could be seen by the peasant girl in Echo when analyzing the painting through this lens. For more information on child labor in Europe, watch the following YouTube video. While it may cover British child labor, the horrific truth of child labor was quite similar throughout Europe.
For centuries, women have been excluded from participating in activities outside the home, such as politics, education, or the workplace. One such example of gender discrimination is in the art industry. It was almost impossible for women to become successful artists for the longest time, and even to this day, one scarcely sees a female artist's work in museums or art galleries. It wasn't until the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century when more opportunities for women to become artists arose, but they still faced a lot of exclusion and gendered discrimination from their male counterparts. For example, women were not allowed access to free training while attaining an artistic education.[7] And if they were allowed to attend classes, they were prevented from attending life-drawing courses since they were deemed inappropriate for women.[8] Ellen Thesleff was one of these female artists that faced exclusion. She was only able to become the successful artist she was because of her family's economic clout. Had she been from a working-class family, she would not have been able to study artistry. The following video, which includes more information on women's roles in the nineteenth century, specifically addresses Victorian England, but gender roles were relatively similar throughout all of Western Europe.
The discriminatory experience she faced could also be portrayed through Echo. Through the peasant girl's yelling to find her voice, one could see Thesleff's struggles with finding her place and fitting in in the art community. She, among the other women, probably felt a sense of isolation and exclusion. So the peasant girl's painting could portray what she was feeling inwards and help remind herself that she has a powerful voice.
Ellen Thesleff's Echo provides a feminist critique of women's position and womanhood in general. The peasant girl is seen yelling at the world as she discovers her place and the power that she possesses. From this, one can say that Thesleff was critiquing the woman's role of being meek, quiet, and submissive, showing that these roles, for women of all statuses, were confining. The peasant girl felt lost and as if she was adrift until she discovered the power she possessed, and from this, she felt a sense of relief and freedom that she had to yell out, at the top of her lungs, the frustration she's been keeping in her whole life.
From analyzing Ellen Thesleff's Echo using the Marxist approach, the viewer can see the many layers this painting has to it. It could merely be a painting portraying a girl that all people could relate to, it could depict the divide between the socio-economic statuses, or it could be a direct critique of women's roles. Or it could be all of the above; it solely depends on how the viewer sees it.
[1] Ellen Thesleff, Ateneum Art Museum, 2015, http://web.archive.org/web/20150402110737/ateneum.fi/en/ellen-thesleff .
[2] Ibid
[3] C. John Holcombe, Marxist Views, Marx Literary Theory, 2007, www.textetc.com/theory/marxist-views.html .
[4] Ibid
[5] Erica Cefalo, 19th-Century Working Class Living Conditions in France: Clothing and Its Significance, The French Worker: A History Collaboration, 2002, www.uky.edu/~popkin/frenchworker/cefalo.htm .
[6] Ibid
[7] Nicole Myers, Women Artists in Nineteenth-Century France, The Met, 2008, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/19wa/hd_19wa.htm .
[8] Ibid
