In this summary I'm just going to focus on some of the notes I made on the family of Tove and her childhood as it's what most applies. Her parent's met at art school in 1910, her mother (Ham) had dreamed of becoming a sculptor but at the time it was very difficult for a woman. This didn't stop her from continuing on self taught, or going on to help set up the swedish girl guides movement, or becoming a suffragette. In the biography it states that she was part of the "new women of the day" and how she had articles writing about how she was a modern career woman. However this didn't stop them in referring to her as wife of victor Jansson (Faffan) and later on mother of Tove Jansson, without ever getting to be referred to as simply herself. I think that she passed this refusal of being forced into societies rules of the norm down to Tove, Who continued to go her own way for as long as she lived.
Faffan (as his family and friends called him) came from a family of industrialists, civil servants and teachers and rebelled away from that to become the first artist in his family despite the limited finances his family had. Ham had also broken away from the traditions of her family to pursue arts, she too came from a family with limited funds. This suggests to me that they both were very determined to become artists despite their family. This goes against the theory of having a creative family making a good impact as they both became successful artists on their own and later on Tove also rebelled away from both the traditional art schools (like Faffan did) and the way her parents viewed art. It gives the impression that if you are already creatively inclined having that encouraged helps but it doesn't make the artist.
The household itself though seemed to have a massive impact as their home was their studio, something that Tove kept on after she moved out and throughout her life. It was in her childhood home that she learnt that work and love are one just like home and studio. This idea drove her life, the phrase work and love is a constant in her letters that she wrote almost continually and it speaks of the level of commitment she had for her work of all forms. Their home was semi famous and they were publicly thought of as an artist family, they had several articles written about them and their home. One of which involved a reporter meeting he young Tove but she was told by Tove's parents not to tell her she was a journalist as they "Do not want to have undue influence on their 'wonder child'". This shows how my earlier theory just falls apart as while they did seem to want to encourage her to become an artist, they didn't want to force her or coerce her towards a path she didn't want to take.
Another reason why my theory falls apart is because of how the biography refers to all three children turning to words as "a rebellion against the domination of pictures". However it also talks about how Faffan was a good writer as evidenced in his letters and how Hams family were particularly good storytellers. Something that fascinated the young Tove, She had a lot of love and respect for her uncles who would tell her great stories. It's entirely possible that writing was just innately within her. However even if that's true, reading all of this rather deflated my idea and my desire to research it. I'll need to find something new to research.
Despite it ruining my idea I still think I can use a lot of what I have learned from this book and if not then I'm still glad I read it as it's powerfully motivational to do your work as work and love are one. Her attitudes to working were so inspiring I actually had a really hard time not drawing while I read and had to take a break to do some sketches of her every now and then.
