BIOGRAPHY
Signe Irene Yletyinen (b. Fagerström) was born in Hanko, Finland 16.12.1900. Her parents were Karl Adolf Amandus Fagerström (6.11.1864 - 1909) and Maria Eleonora Berg (11.7.1858 - 6.7.1945).
→ Signe Yletyinen's family tree
The family's life was overshadowed by the death of Signe's father Karl when she was only 8 years old and later by the tragic fates of his three older brothers in the Finnish Civil War 1918. Of the brothers who had unwillingly sided with the Reds, Thyre Richard (28.11.1888 - 24.10.1918) was executed in Vyborg at the age of 29 and Frithiof (22.1.1898 - 22.3.1918) was killed in battle of Padasjoki in Häme at the age of 20. The second eldest brother Karl Elis (31.7.1891 - 2.6.1962) was conscripted to fight for the Whites. He was miraculously saved from the battle of Mouhu when a Red patrol failed to spot him and walked past a man who had thrown himself into a ditch. The trauma of the war left a deep mark on the family.
Thyre Fagerström
Signe Yletyinen went to school in Hanko and Tammisaari. When she moved to Helsinki in the early 1920s she was able to speak Finnish only a little, but learned it perfectly later. At about the same time she met her husband Arthur Yletyinen (11.11.1899 - 18.5.1977) in Mustikkamaa, Helsinki.
School report year 1913.
Artistic education
She began studying at the Finnish Art Society's Drawing School in Ateneum, but studied mainly at the Free Art School (Vapaa Taidekoulu) in Helsinki in the years 1945-49. Here her teachers were eg. Sulho Sipilä (1895 - 1949), Unto Pusa (1913 - 1973), Johannes Gebhard (1894 - 1976) and Sam Vanni (1908 - 1992). In addition, she took private lessons in Sweden and Norway and had as a teacher eg. Einar Halfdan Berger (1890-1961).
Sewing atelier
Yletyinen continued to paint after Ateneum's drawing school and worked on Bersin's sewing atelier at Bulevardi, Helsinki, where she studied as a tailor and designed eg. pearl and flower decorations on evening dresses.
Atelier Bersin moved to the USA in mid 1920s and after this Yletyinen founded his own sewing atelier. She had the help of two assistants but designed and cut the fabrics herself.
Lydia Saro-Behrsins advertisement
in Helsingin Sanomat 14.5.1922
Wartime difficulties forced her to refrain from the studio and her assistants, but she continued to sew at home for her closest customers. Then she got the impulse to continue with art studies at the Free Art School (Vapaa Taidekoulu), Helsinki.
Report from Vapaa Taidekoulu,
which Sulho Sipilä has signed.
Painting travels
Yletyinen made several painting travels in the summer of the 1940s and the 1950s to Norway's Lofoten, Northern Norway, Denmark and Sweden. On the trips she sold a lot of her works to local residents. These paintings were very popular. She also got many customers ordering motifs which they wanted. She also held several exhibitions on her travels.
Style orientation and working methods
Signe Yletyinens painting style was in beginning more naturalistic though changed early to expressionistic. She was skilled to harmonize with colors, which however, did not fall in faint sweetness.
Yletyinen always used the best materials, including best french colors and linen fabrics. She prepared the fabrics and tense them on kilrams according to older teachers learning and began to outline oil paintings first with carbon on cloth. She did the sketch work always until she was happy with the result. To the watercolors she used only qualitative papers.
The motives
She gladly painted archipelago motif at her summer house in Tenhola. Even her many landscapes have been painted in Saarijärvi, Espoo and in Otava, Mikkeli.
Flowers motives were also her favorites, which she painted as well with watercolors and oil. Also portraits were close to her heart and she painted several of them according to order.
Exhibitions
Yletyinen arranged several exhibitions in the 1940s and 50s, eg. at Kumlin's Art Hall, Helsinki.
Latest works
Yletyinen painted all the way to her last years. She did the last paintings in the early 1980s at home in Helsinki and these were mainly flower motifs.
Signe
Yletyinen died 11.11.1985 in Helsinki on his husband Arthur Yletyinen's (1899-1977) birthday.
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