The double-sided Schjerfbeck work from the Riihimäki Art Museum is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

Helene Schjerfbeck's work, which is part of the Riihimäki Art Museum's collection, is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck, which opens to the public on Friday, December 5. This is the first extensive presentation of Schjerfbeck's art in the United States.

The double-sided work takes center stage in the exhibition

The Riihimäki Art Museum lent the work Factory Workers on the Way to Work (1921–1922), from the collection of Tatjana and Pentti Wähäjärvi, to the exhibition, with another work on the reverse: Unfinished Self-Portrait. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, or The Met, was specifically interested in the self-portrait, but both sides of the double-sided work are on display in the exhibition. As the only double-sided work in the exhibition, the painting from the Riihimäki Art Museum has been given a central position in the display, placed on a pedestal.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, located on Fifth Avenue in New York, is one of the world's most prestigious art museums and also one of the largest in terms of size. The exhibition Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck is a collaboration between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum Art Museum. The exhibition features approximately 60 works.

Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck will be on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from December 5, 2025 to April 5, 2026.