Self-portrait. Johan Turi. Date unknown. Mixed technique on thick paper (pastel, gouache and ink, or similar). 32.2 x 25.2 cm (irregular). The Johan Turi Archives. Nordiska Museet, Stockholm. LA 659, No. 11, Box J1:1. Photo: Nordiska Museet.

This is probably a self-portrait. Turi has signed it with an extra “h” to his name, perhaps as embellishment. The given price, 10 Swedish crowns, is quite typical for him, but very modest indeed compared to what professional artists achieved at the time for their landscape drawings and paintings of northern Sweden.  

A prominent detail is the hat with its large red tassel, the wide collar and shoulder band of red, yellow, and blue, and the black belt at the waist with a knife in a bowed sheath. He is wearing a gákti reminiscent of those used in the regions of Čohkkiras/Jukkasjärvi or Giron/Kiruna and its details fit with what Turi might have worn, though his preserved, tasselled hat also has a front brim (Nordiska Museet). 

But where is he standing? The surroundings consist of visible brushstrokes of green and yellow against a beige ground. The vibrant colours indicate a summerly, fertile flora. In addition, patches of white with hints of blue have been added to the immediate left and right of the face and neck, as if to highlight his head.  

The meaning of such a figurative self-portrait is to invigorate the personal, physical features of a living and acting human being. Compared to known portraits of Johan Turi, we do find corresponding facial features, in addition to his clothes and knife. Why, then, we may ask, do bodily proportions appear distorted, namely the large head and the minute arms and hands? On the one hand, we see similar traits in other portraits by Turi, such as his drawing of the Swedish King Gustav VI Adolf (Nordiska Museet). On the other hand, there is also a possible compositional reason for this personal and idiosyncratic use of proportions. The formal modifications strengthen the figure's main, upright shape. The great head contributes to an impression of an overall, formal unity within which details such as his beard, hair, ear, lips, eye, eyebrow, and wrinkles, are held together. The colours of the face and head are closely related to the ground of the image, the light beige of the paper itself. The darker beige of his skin counterweighs the neighbouring areas of blues, yellows, reds, and greens. As a result, the shape of the head and face, the tiny arms and the general colour scheme make his body stand out from its coloured surrounding areas.  

The gesturing right arm of the portrayed, his parted lips, and his calm gaze might hint at him being engaged in a dialogue with someone outside the image to the left. Created shortly after a journey to Copenhagen in 1911 and a year following the publication of his book Muitalus sámiid birra, Turi's self-confidence was at a peak. This seems reflected in the picture. Taken as a self-portrait, it imbues Johan Turi with self-assurance and monumentality. 

Essay by Svein Aamold 

Further reading

Svein Aamold. 2017. ‘Representing the Hidden and Perceptible: Johan Turi’s Images of Sápmi’, in Sámi Art and Aesthetics, edited by Svein Aamold et.al. Aarhus University Press. 69-98.