In this way Tove explored themes for children and adults without simple sentimentality, but an honest awareness of life as consisting of both light and shade… and the world in-between. Highlighting the darkness often found in traditional folk and fairytales, the books however, would also reflect the relationships of family members and the values of kinship.

In her first work Tove invented a forested world beset with hidden dangers for her Moomin characters to navigate, while her second, Comet in Moominland (1946), contemplated a world of catastrophes and natural disasters. Her early books often metaphorically reflected such times as a result. Tove’s first Moomins book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, was created in 1945 at the end of a very grim period of European and global history involving two world wars and the unleashing of atomic bombs on Japan. Their early love affair had to be hidden and at first demonstrated through coded messages and discreet meetings. Same-sex relationships were illegal in Finland at the time and would remain so until as late as 1971. The two began working on projects together, a circumstance that would later lead to a deep romantic connection.

Tove’s illustrations for ‘ Garm ‘ magazine (c.1939)Īlthough she was once briefly engaged, Tove met her life partner Tuulikki Pietilä, a US born, Finnish graphic artist who was also a professor in Seattle, during the 1950s. It was at this time, the artist began to be involved with Garm, an anti-fascist Finnish-Swedish satirical magazine for whom she created many illustrations. During the pre World War 2 era, Tove would regularly have illustrations published in magazines. Tove’s enrolment at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1938, after studying art in her homeland, would eventually lead to exhibitions of her work. Signe Hammarsten-Jansson’s self portrait. It would be the start of a lifelong love affair with creativity for the future artist, illustrator and author. As an adolescent she began creating books with her own illustrations. Both her parents were artists and from a young age Tove aided her mother, illustrator Signe Hammarsten-Jansson, with her commissions. Tove Jansson was born in the capital of Finland, Helsinki, the eldest of her siblings.

Moomin author