Vainio, Jyrki :: Finnish art - Moomin

Tove Jansson cartoon (Moomin!) 1949

Artist: Tove Jansson (All)

10 Comments - 7,111 Views - 2 Likes

Tove Jansson cartoon (Moomin!) 1949 Comic Art

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Additional Images:

Published 1946 version

Next Item:
Niffe, Moomin illustration, 2006

Artwork Details

Title:	Tove Jansson cartoon (Moomin!) 1949
Artist:	Tove Jansson (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Comic Strip
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	7,111
Likes on CAF:	2 3
Favorited on CAF:	1
Comments:	10
Added to Site:	12/11/2010
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Tove Jansson (1914-2001) is by far the most internationally succesful Finnish cartoonist. She was a painter, novelist, cartoonist and illustrator, most known for her Moomin characters, of which she did both picture books and illustrated chapter books for children, and also a daily newspaper comic strip syndicated internationally from England 1954-1959.
The Moomin character first appeared as a recurring little doodle in the backgrounds of Jansson's magazine cartoons in the 40s and became a sort of visual signature for her work.
In a situation comparable to Carl Barks, just about all Moomin comic strip originals were destroyed by the publisher. Apparently all that remain are little bits and pieces she cut out and redraw. Most of her illustration and cartoon work was donated to a museum in Tampere, Finland. So finding an original drawing of hers really is quite rare. Especially one with a little Moomin!
This piece still remains a bit of a mystery, though: it's inscribed to a doctor in 1949 (apparently before her success Jansson would often pay medical bills with artwork), but I found an earlier published version of the same image dated 1946. The images are a very close match, yet not identical: for example, the Moomin character on the floor looks much more primitive in the 1946 version. So has the drawing been redrawn specifically as a gift? Or has it been reused somewhere after the first publication?

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About the Owner

	Jyrki Vainio
Joined:	October 2005
Last Login:	September 2025
Ebay Id:	jyrki_vainio
Website:	http://www.jyrkivainio.com/
Country:	FINLAND
On CAF:	Jyrki's Want List Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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Comments on this Artwork

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P. Portillo
Member Since 2006

Posted on 12/11/2010

WOW! Jyrki, this is sure a great finding. I saw a Tove Jansson exhibition in Brussels, past summer, and it was amazing. Congrats for this little jewel!

Alex Johnson
Member Since 2006
Forum Moderator

Posted on 12/11/2010

What a tremendous find. You should put the whole story - as sent to comicart-l - in your description of the piece. I've never read a Moomin book, but I've heard of the characters and share your thrill in finding such a piece.

Rob Stolzer
Member Since 2004

Posted on 12/11/2010

A wonderful drawing Jyriki. Thanks so much for all of the great background info, and for posting this terrific piece. Congratulations!

glen gold
Member Since 2004

Posted on 12/11/2010

A gem! How charming and obviously very personal.

Aaron N.
Member Since 2009

Posted on 12/11/2010

Here's to you!

Satya Chetri
Member Since 2006

Posted on 12/12/2010

Superb piece, and a wonderful wonderful surprise to see this on CAF. Any addition to your collection, as always, comes as a breath of fresh air in a morass of generic super-heroics and big-breasted titillation. Congratulations on your acquisition and thank you for reminding us that good taste lives on!

Collezione Sista e Ovidio Scapigliati
Member Since 2005

Posted on 12/12/2010

Moomin!!!!!!!!! with Krazy Kat and Barnaby is my favorite strip. BEAUTIFUL!!!

Adam Ianbarry
Member Since 2010

Posted on 6/25/2012

Wonderful art!!! :-)

Timothy Finney
Member Since 2006

Posted on 9/10/2013

I had never heard of Moomin until I came to Japan (my wife was a fan). Here, one can buy the books (translated into Japanese, of course) which are still being printed, see various old TV shows, some made here in Japan, which are rerun often on NHK (Japan's BBC) and elsewhere and find various merchandise (even I was awarded a Moomin coffee cup once) most anywhere. So, while I am unhappy to learn that much of Ms. Jansson's Moomin original artwork was destroyed, I am happy to see you were able to acquire this wonderful example of her work.

Jyrki Vainio
Member Since 2005

Posted on 9/10/2013

Timothy Finney wrote:

I had never heard of Moomin until I came to Japan (my wife was a fan).

Now we can all benefit from Japan's affinity towards Moomin: the Drawn & Quarterly comic strip books are made from material that has been painstakingly restored and cleaned in Japan to enable best possible reproduction. They are a huge improvement on the worn-out proof sheets that were used for previous book collections in Scandinavia - the print quality in the new books is far surperior to anything we've seen of the Moomin comic strip before.

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