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Akseli Gallen-Kallela
Akseli Gallen-Kallela
Born	Axel Waldemar Gallén; 26 April 1865; Pori, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire
Died	7 March 1931 (aged 65); Stockholm, Sweden
Known for	Painting
Movement	Romantic nationalism, Realism, Symbolism

Akseli Gallen-Kallela (26 April 1865 – 7 March 1931) was a Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. His work is considered a very important aspect of the Finnish national identity. He finnicized his name from Gallén to Gallen-Kallela in 1907.^[1]

Life and career

Early life

Gallen-Kallela was born Axel Waldemar Gallén in Pori, Finland, in a Swedish-speaking family. His father Peter Gallén worked as police chief and lawyer.^[2] Gallen-Kallela was raised in Tyrvää.^[3] At the age of 11 he was sent to Helsinki to study at a grammar school, because his father opposed his ambition to become a painter. After his father's death in 1879, Gallen-Kallela attended drawing classes at the Finnish Art Society (1881–1884) and studied privately under Adolf von Becker.^[1]

Moonlit Landscape, 1881, his first oil painting
Boy and a Crow, 1884 (fi)
Decaying Sander, 1884 (fi)

Paris

In 1884 he moved to Paris, to study at the Académie Julian.^[4] In Paris he became friends with the Finnish painter Albert Edelfelt, the Norwegian painter Carl Dørnberger, and the Swedish writer August Strindberg.^[1] During this period he traveled back and forth between Finland and Paris.^[1]

Life and Death, 1884
Parisian Backyard, 1884 (fi)
Old Woman with a Cat, 1885 (fi)
Boulevard in Paris, 1885 (fi)
In a Café in Paris, 1886
Woman Cooking Whitefish, 1886
Rustic Life, 1887 (fi)
The First Lesson, 1887–1889
Démasquée, 1888 (fi)
In the Sauna, 1889 (fi)
Wound Fever, 1889 (fi)
Girl in the Old Church of Keuruu, 1889 (fi)
^{[note 1]}

Mary Slöör

He married Mary Slöör in 1890. The couple had three children: Impi Marjatta, Kirsti and Jorma. On their honeymoon to East Karelia, Gallen-Kallela started collecting material for his depictions of the Kalevala. His works during this period is characterized by romantic paintings of the Kalevala, such as the Aino Myth, and by several landscape paintings, although by 1894 the influence of symbolism is heavily visible in his works.^[1]

Madonna (Mary and Marjatta), 1891 (fi)
Aino Myth, Triptych, 1891^[6] (fi)
Shepherd Boy from Paanajärvi, 1892
Mäntykoski Waterfall, 1892–1894 (fi)
^{[note 2]}
Portrait of the Artist's Wife, 1893
The Forging of the Sampo, 1893 (fi)
Black Woodpecker, 1894^[8]^[9] (fi)
Conceptio Artis, 1894
Sibelius as the Composer of En saga, 1894
^{[note 3]}
Ad Astra, 1894 (fi)

Berlin and tragedy

In December 1894, Gallen-Kallela moved to Berlin to oversee the joint exhibition of his works with the works of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. At the time Gallen-Kallela also designed a grand cabin called Kalela for his family far from everything on the shore of Lake Ruovesi. It was built from dead standing pine by 13 local carpenters in a year from 1894 to 1895.^[12]^[13]

In March 1895, his trip was ended when he received a telegram that his daughter Impi Marjatta had died from diphtheria, which would prove to be a turning point in his work. Hs works had been romantic, but after his daughter's death, Gallen-Kallela's works became more aggressive. From 1896 to 1899, he painted what are considered his most famous works: The Defense of the Sampo, Lemminkäinen's Mother, Joukahainen's Revenge and Kullervo's Curse.^[1] In May 1895, Gallen and Mary visited London, with his intent being the purchase of a graphic art press. There, he also learned about stained glass. At the end of 1897 the family took a trip to Florence, also visiting Pompeii, where he studied the art of frescoes.^[1]

Portrait of Edvard Munch, 1895
Kalela on a Winter Night, 1896
The Artist's Mother, 1896
The Defense of the Sampo, 1896 (fi)
Lemminkäinen's Mother, 1897
Joukahainen's Revenge, 1897 (fi)
The Fratricide, 1897, from Kanteletar
Mary Sewing on the Veranda of Kalela, 1897
Kullervo's Curse, 1899 (fi)
February Vision, 1899

Paris 1900 Exposition

For the Paris World Fair in 1900, Gallen-Kallela painted frescoes for the Finnish Pavilion.^[1] In the fresco Ilmarinen Plowing the Field of Vipers there was a hidden political message: one of the vipers is wearing a small Romanov crown,^[14] telling of Gallen-Kallela's wish for an independent Finland at the time of the Russification of Finland.

The Paris Exposition secured Gallen-Kallela's stature as the leading Finnish artist.^[15] In 1901 he was commissioned to paint the fresco, Kullervo Sets Off for War, for the concert hall of the Helsinki Student's Union.^[15] Between 1901 and 1903 he painted the frescoes for the Jusélius Mausoleum in Pori, memorializing the 11-year-old daughter of the industrialist Fritz Arthur Jusélius. (The frescoes however were soon damaged by dampness, and were completely destroyed by fire in December 1931. Jusélius assigned the artist's son Jorma to repaint them from the original sketches.^[16] The reconstruction was completed just before Jorma's death in 1939.)^[1]

Gallen-Kallela officially finnicized his name to Akseli Gallen-Kallela in 1907.^[1] His idea for a 700-page Great Kalevala [fi] was fully formed in 1909 with a publication of his plan in the Valvoja magazine.^[17]

Sketch for the 1900 Exposition fresco Ilmarinen Plowing the Field of Vipers, 1899
Liekki ryijy, designed by Gallen-Kallela
Spring, c. 1900
^{[note 4]}
Kullervo Sets Off for War, 1901, large mural at Old Student House
By the River of Tuonela, study for the Jusélius Mausoleum frescos, 1903 (fi)
Lake Keitele, 1905^[18] (fi)
The Theft of the Sampo, 1905 (fi)
The Departure of Väinämöinen, 1906 (fi)
The Lair of the Lynx, 1906
Bil-Bol, Poster for an Automobile Retailer, 1907

Kenya

In 1908 with renewal in mind, Gallen-Kallela and his family moved to Paris. However the city and the new direction art was being taken didn't feel as hospitable as he had hoped, and so in May 1909 they moved much further away to Nairobi in Kenya. He was the first Finnish artist to paint south of the Sahara, and produced over 150 expressionistic works. Although artistically the paintings are of fluctuating quality, their colors and the synergy of the colors are remarkable. They returned to Finland in February 1911.^[1] Between 1911 and 1913 he designed and built a studio and house for his family at Tarvaspää, approximately 10 km northwest of the centre of Helsinki.^[19]

The Oceanides, 1909
Café in Paris, 1909
Skeleton of a Camel, 1909
Untitled, 1909
Kikuyu Woman, 1909
Portrait of Kenosua, 1909–1910
^{[note 5]}
Rhinoceros and Euphorbia Trees, 1909–1910
Hippos in the Tana River, 1910
Homo Victor (Victorious Man), 1910
Coral Tree in Blossom, 1910

Finnish Civil War

The family moved back from Tarvaspää to Kalela in 1915 to escape the turmoil of the First World War. A few years later in 1918, Gallen-Kallela and his son Jorma took part in the fighting at the front of the Finnish Civil War. When the regent, General Mannerheim, heard about that, he invited Gallen-Kallela to design the flags, official decorations and uniforms for the newlyindependent Finland. For the flag, Gallen-Kallela proposed a white-blue cross flag, with colors inverted (white cross on blue), but it was considered too similar to the Swedish flag and particularly the era's Greek flag. In 1919, he was appointed aide-de-camp to Mannerheim.^[1] In 1920, he made an agreement with the publishing company WSOY for the eventual publication of Great Kalevala, with the less decorative Koru-Kalevala being published first in 1922.^[17]

Kalela in Autumn, 1915
The Lovers, 1906–1917
Portrait of Mary, 1917
Kirsti Playing the Cello, 1917
Regretful Kullervo, 1918
Lemminkäinen by the River of Fire, 1920

Taos, New Mexico, later life, and death

In December 1923, he moved to the United States, where his family followed him in autumn 1924. He first spent time in Chicago, and an exhibition of his work toured several cities.^[21] In Chicago, he was impressed by Native American art and moved to Taos, New Mexico, at the art colony there to study it further. During his time in the United States, he began sketching out the Great Kalevala in much more detail. In May 1926, the family returned to Finland. In 1928 together with his son Jormam he painted the Kalevala frescoes at the lobby of the National Museum of Finland. Then in 1930 he made an agreement to paint a gigantic fresco for the bank Kansallis-Osake-Pankki, but on 7 March 1931, while returning from a lecture in Copenhagen, he suddenly died of pneumonia in Stockholm.^[1]

Indian Chief Clear Water, 1924
The Indian Sia Ohutaa, 1925
Our Home in Taos, 1925
Taos Home in Sunlight, 1925
Indian on Horseback in Snow, 1925
Taos, 1925
Crack Willow and Blue Bird in New Mexico, 1925
The Great Pike, 1928 fresco based on an earlier a 1904 painting
Portrait of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, 1929
Page depicting the birth of Väinämöinen from the unfinished Great Kalevala [fi], 1920–1930

Legacy

His studio and house at Tarvaspää was opened as the Gallen-Kallela Museum in 1961 and house some of his works and research facilities on him.^[22]^[23]

Notes

^ The girl who modeled for the painting was a future parliament member, Maria Raunio.^[5]
^ The frames were painted by Elin Danielson-Gambogi.^[7]
^ Gallen-Kallela was inspired by Sibelius' tone poem En saga (A Fairy Tale). On the right is Sibelius himself, at top left is the visuals it brought to Gallen-Kallela's mind and the empty section at bottom left was supposed to have notes from the tone poem, but Sibelius didn't wish to add them.^[10]^[11]
^ There is also a Jusélius Mausoleum fresco called Spring from 1903.
^ He was an aide and a friend to the Gallen-Kallela family and always escorted the family's children to school.^[20]

References

Citations

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m Reitala 1997.
^ Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 5.
^ Musée d'Orsay 2012.
^ Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 65.
^ Pohjolainen 2016.
^ Hämäläinen 2018.
^ Okkonen 1916, pp. 248–261.
^ Sipilä 2019.
^ Leppänen 2020.
^ Ainola.
^ von Donsdorff 2017.
^ Ruovesi.
^ Yle 2010.
^ Saressalo 2018.
^ ^a ^b Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 12.
^ Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 37.
^ ^a ^b Mikkonen 2017.
^ Aksa 2018.
^ Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 38.
^ Kulttuurikurkkaus 2019.
^ Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 39.
^ Gallen-Kallela Museum 2015.
^ Ringbom 1996.

Sources

Books

Jackson, D.; Wageman, P., eds. (2006). Akseli Gallen-Kallela, De magie van Finland [Akseli Gallen-Kallela, The Magic of Finland] (softcover) (in Dutch). Rotterdam: NAi Booksellers / Groninger Museum. ISBN 978-90-5662-523-8.
Martin, Timo; Pusa, Erja (1985). Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1865-1931 (hardcover). Translated by John Derome. Tarvaspää: Gallen-Kallela Museum. OCLC 29071282.
Okkonen, Onni (1916). "Trip to Kuusamo". Akseli Gallen-Kallela, elämä ja taide [Akseli Gallen-Kallela, life and art] (in Finnish). Porvoo-Helsinki: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö (WSOY).
Pohjolainen, Raija (2016). Tyttö Keuruun vanhassa kirkossa [A girl in the old church in Keuruu] (in Finnish). Vantaa: Kellastupa. ISBN 978-95-2578-723-8.

Websites

"Ainolan taideteokset / Aino ja Jean Sibeliuksen koti" [Welcome to Ainola! / The home of Aino and Jean Sibelius]. Ainola (in Finnish). 26 May 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
"Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931). A Passion for Finland". Musée d'Orsay. 2012. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
"Akseli Gallen-Kallela ikuisti Keitelettä – teoskopio sai paikan Lintulahden Nesteeltä" [Akseli Gallen-Kallela immortalized Keitele - a copy of the work was received from Lintulahti Neste]. Aksa (in Finnish). 9 December 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
"Gallen-Kallela 150 years". Gallen-Kallela Museum. 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
"Gallen-Kallelan rapistunut erämaa-ateljee avataan heinäkuuksi" [The dilapidated wilderness studio in Gallen-Kallela will open in July]. Yle (in Finnish). 29 June 2010. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
Hämäläinen, Jukka (24 May 2018). "Suomen Pankki esittelee taideaarteitaan avoimin ovin – Tiesitkö että Aino-triptyykistä on kaksi erilaista versiota?" [The Bank of Finland presents its art treasures openly - Did you know that there are two different versions of the Aino triptych?]. Vantaan Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 21 August 2020.
"Kalela". Ruovesi. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
"Kulttuurikurkkaus" [Cultural corner] (PDF). Gallen-Kallela Museum (in Finnish). August 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
Leppänen, Mikko (23 January 2020). "Gallen-Kallelan Palokärki päätyi pariisilaiseen taidemuseoon" [Gallen-Kallela's Palokärki ended up in an art museum in Paris]. Yle (in Finnish). Retrieved 21 August 2020.

Mikkonen, Nadja (19 September 2017). "Suur-Kalevala oli Akseli Gallen-Kallelan hurja haave – haukkui kirjeellä kustantajan, kun ymmärrystä ei löytynyt" [The Great Kalevala was Akseli Gallen-Kallela's wild dream - the publisher barked with a letter when no understanding was found]. Yle (in Finnish). Retrieved 25 August 2020.

Reitala, Aimo (16 September 1997). "Gallen-Kallela, Akseli (1865–1931)". 100 Faces from Finland – a Biographical Kaleidoscope. Translated by Fletcher Roderick. Biographical Centre of the Finnish Literature Society. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
Ringbom, Sixten (1996). "Gallen-Kallela, Akseli (1865–1931), painter, graphic artist, designer". Grove Art Online. Oxford Index. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T030510. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
Saressalo, Lassi (2018). "Matka kultakauteen Kansallisromantiikkaa Kainuusta ja kauempaakin" [A journey into the golden age National romance from Kainuu and beyond]. Kotiseutuliitto (in Finnish). Retrieved 20 August 2020.
Sipilä, Annamari (4 November 2019). "Mysteeriomistajalla vuosikymmeniä ollut Gallen-Kallelan miljoonateos Palokärki tulee myyntiin New Yorkissa – lintuun kiteytyy suomalaisten vastarinta" [Gallen-Kallela's millennial work Palokärki, which has had a mystery owner for decades, goes on sale in New York - Finnish bird crystallizes resistance]. Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 21 August 2020.
von Donsdorff, Anna-Maria (2017). "Correspondences – Jean Sibelius in a Forest of Image and Myth" (PDF). FNG Research. Retrieved 22 August 2020.

External links

Media related to Akseli Gallen-Kallela at Wikimedia Commons

List of all paintings by Gallen-Kallela on Commons
Gallen-Kallela Museum website
"Akseli Gallen-Kallela". Biografiskt lexikon för Finland (in Swedish). Helsingfors: Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. urn:NBN:fi:sls-4673-1416928957279.

[6] The girl who modeled for the painting was a future parliament member, Maria Raunio.^[5]

[9] The frames were painted by Elin Danielson-Gambogi.^[7]

[14] Gallen-Kallela was inspired by Sibelius' tone poem En saga (A Fairy Tale). On the right is Sibelius himself, at top left is the visuals it brought to Gallen-Kallela's mind and the empty section at bottom left was supposed to have notes from the tone poem, but Sibelius didn't wish to add them.^[10]^[11]

[21] There is also a Jusélius Mausoleum fresco called Spring from 1903.

[25] He was an aide and a friend to the Gallen-Kallela family and always escorted the family's children to school.^[20]

[FOOTNOTEReitala1997-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m Reitala 1997.

[FOOTNOTEMartinPusa19855-2] Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 5.

[FOOTNOTEMusée_d'Orsay_2012-3] Musée d'Orsay 2012.

[FOOTNOTEMartinPusa198565-4] Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 65.

[FOOTNOTEPohjolainen2016-5] Pohjolainen 2016.

[FOOTNOTEHämäläinen2018-7] Hämäläinen 2018.

[FOOTNOTEOkkonen1916248–261-8] Okkonen 1916, pp. 248–261.

[FOOTNOTESipilä2019-10] Sipilä 2019.

[FOOTNOTELeppänen2020-11] Leppänen 2020.

[FOOTNOTEAinola-12] Ainola.

[FOOTNOTEvon_Donsdorff2017-13] von Donsdorff 2017.

[FOOTNOTERuovesi-15] Ruovesi.

[FOOTNOTEYle_2010-16] Yle 2010.

[FOOTNOTESaressalo2018-17] Saressalo 2018.

[FOOTNOTEMartinPusa198512-18] Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 12.

[FOOTNOTEMartinPusa198537-19] Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 37.

[FOOTNOTEMikkonen2017-20] Mikkonen 2017.

[FOOTNOTEAksa_2018-22] Aksa 2018.

[FOOTNOTEMartinPusa198538-23] Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 38.

[FOOTNOTEKulttuurikurkkaus_2019-24] Kulttuurikurkkaus 2019.

[FOOTNOTEMartinPusa198539-26] Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 39.

[FOOTNOTEGallen-Kallela_Museum_2015-27] Gallen-Kallela Museum 2015.

[FOOTNOTERingbom1996-28] Ringbom 1996.

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Akseli Gallen-Kallela