Helga Sonck (1916–2015) was born in Tallinn and grew up in the multilingual city of Vyborg. In 1941 she married the lieutenant colonel Karl Arnold Majewski, but the marriage was short-lived as her husband was killed in the war the next year. The following year she moved to Porvoo, where she worked as a pharmacist.
She found the idea of being an artist more appealing, so during 1950–1953 she studied at the Finnish Art Academy school. She held her first exhibition at Porvoo museum in 1956. In the early 1950s she painted in a simplified style using muted colours, but later on her palette became brighter, often creating a glowing world of colour.
For several decades the artist was one of the central figures in the artistic life of Porvoo and she was even involved in founding the Porvoo Art Association in 1966. Helga Sonck-Majewski was an unforgettable character, remembered for her outfits in matching colours.
Porvoo Museum received the collection as a donation from the artist Viggo Wallensköld in 2018. The collection contains paintings of flowers and portraits, but among Sonck-Majewski’s works there are also prints, such as woodcuts with views of the Old Town in Porvoo. The essence of her art is an all-embracing love of nature. Even her earliest paintings feature dandelions, which was the artist’s favourite plant.
