The Wives

The descendants remember well the men of the Tusby Lake colony and their great achievements, but the women who stood in the background often remain in the shadows. However, the wives were the cornerstone of these artistic households. They managed daily routines, child care, education, and vegetable gardens. One must marvel at how they also found time and energy for other significant work.

Venny Soldan-Brofeldt had a career as a visual artist. Aino Sibelius had beautiful handwriting and transcribed, among other things, Juhani Aho’s Bible translations. Saimi Järnefelt worked as a translator into Finnish, as did the linguistically gifted Maija Halonen, who translated Lagerlöf from Swedish, Ingemann from Danish, and even the story of Pinocchio from Italian. The wives also had their literary club. Aino Sibelius wrote to her husband in Berlin in January 1905:

“Last night, I was at Suviranta. Maija Halonen, Venny, Saimi, and I have decided to meet once a week to read something. Last night, we read Schück’s Gustav III. And it was a lovely clear moonlight when I came home around 11:30 PM. So you see, I have been out and about.”