Ada Thilen

Ada Maria Thilen (May 10, 1852 – June 14, 1933) was a Finnish painter known for her landscapes.

Thilen was born in Kuopio in 1852. She had a damaged eye and had to use a glass eye for her life. Her father was the Senate Treasury Chamber Councilor Julius Gustaf Reinhold Thilén and her mother was Vilhelmina Angelika Elisabet Ehrnrooth. Thilen studied under Hjalmar Munsterhjelm at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm and under Léon Bonnat and Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris. She went on painting trips including Brittany in 1886.

Thilén participated in exhibitions of Finnish Artists in 1893, 1895, 1897, 1900, 1901, 1903, 1906 and 1924. Thilén painted landscapes and portraits. Her works represent French realism in the style of the 1880s, with Italian influences as well. The Finnish National biography believes that her profile is less than her contemporaries because of her modesty and because she has not attracted the same level of academic interest.

In 1896 she painted her own self portrait. She continued to use a glass eye and this did not seem to affect her success as an artist. She had a long friendship with three other artists Helene Schjerfbeck, Maria Wiik and Helena Westermarck. She was remembered principally for her landscapes.

Thilen died in Helsinki in 1933.