Akseli Gallen-Kallela
Defined Finnish identity via Kalevala art
Akseli Gallen-Kallela was a Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic (illustration, below). His work is considered very important for the Finnish national identity. He changed his name from Gallén to Gallen-Kallela in 1907. 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. Gallen-Kallela was raised in Tyrvää. 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. In 1884 he moved to Paris, to study at the Académie Julian. In Paris he became friends with the Finnish painter Albert Edelfelt, the Norwegian painter Carl Dørnberger, and the Swedish writer August Strindberg. During this period he traveled back and forth between Finland and Paris. 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. 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.
Relationship Network
Master student
- Adolf von Becker Master
- Hugo Simberg Student
Friend
Influenced
Artworks by this artist (223 total)
- The Departure Of Väinämöinen 1893 - 1894
- The Swan Of Tuonela 1904 - 1905
- The Great Kalevala, defending Sampo from the boat with archers 1906-1930
- Väinämöinen’s Voyage 1909
- Defence of the Sampo 1895
- The Great Kalevala, Väinämöinen and the Eagle, a woodcut print. between 1906 and 1930
- Mother with sick child 1888
- Skaters on Lake Ruovesi 1896
- Cow And Boy, 1885 1907
- Kullervo Cursing 1899
- The Great Kalevala, Poem III, sketch for the opening vignette. 1925
- Imatra Falls in Snow ; Imatra in Winter 1893
- In the Sauna 1889
- The Giant Pike 1904
- Koru-Kalevala, The Illustrated Kalevala, Lemminkäinen’s Mother drags his son from Tuonela river 1923
- Saunasta tultua, 11. luku 1907
- The abduction of Sampo 1905
- The Great Kalevala, woodcut print of Väinämöinen and the eagle 1906-1930
- Kiskot 1897
- Portrait Of Doctor Herman Frithiof Antell 1886