Akseli Gallen-Kallela

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Akseli Gallen-Kallela
Born
Axel Waldemar Gallén

(1865-04-26)26 April 1865
Pori, Finland
Died7 March 1931(1931-03-07) (aged 65)
Stockholm, Sweden
NationalityFinnish
Known forPainting
MovementRomantic 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 changed his name from Gallén to Gallen-Kallela in 1907.[1]

Life and career

Early life

Gallen-Kallela was born Axel Waldemar Gallén in

Finnish Art Society (1881–1884) and studied privately under Adolf von Becker.[1]

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

Paris

Self-Portrait at the Easel, 1885

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

Mary Slöör

Problem (Symposium) depicting Gallen-Kallela himself, Oskar Merikanto, Robert Kajanus and Jean Sibelius, 1894 (fi)
Self-Portrait in Fresco, 1894

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.[1]

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

Berlin and tragedy

Self-Portrait ’en face’, 1897

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

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

Paris 1900 Exposition

For the

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 the more Finnish-sounding 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]

Kenya

Akseli Gallen-Kallela After Returning From Africa by Sigurd Wettenhovi-Aspa in 1911
Uffizi Gallery
, 1916

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

Tarvaspää, approximately 10 km northwest of the centre of Helsinki.[19]

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

Finnish Civil War

Gallen-Kallela in his lieutenant uniform during the civil war, 1918
Portrait of A. Gallen-Kallela, Ilya Repin, 1920

The family moved back from Tarvaspää to Kalela in 1915 to escape the turmoil of

WSOY for the eventual publication of Great Kalevala, with the less decorative Koru-Kalevala being published first in 1922.[17]

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

Taos, New Mexico, and later life

Gallen-Kallela in the National Museum of Finland in front of his fresco version of The Defense of the Sampo, 1928

In December 1923 he moved to the United States, where his family also 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 this time in the United States he also began sketching out the Great Kalevala in much more detail. In May 1926, the family returned to Finland. Two years later in 1928 together with his son Jorma 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
    Indian Chief Clear Water, 1924
  • The Indian Sia Ohutaa, 1925
    The Indian Sia Ohutaa, 1925
  • Our Home in Taos, 1925
    Our Home in Taos, 1925
  • Taos Home in Sunlight, 1925
    Taos Home in Sunlight, 1925
  • Indian on Horseback in Snow, 1925
    Indian on Horseback in Snow, 1925
  • Taos, 1925
    Taos, 1925
  • Crack Willow and Blue Bird in New Mexico, 1925
    Crack Willow and Blue Bird in New Mexico, 1925
  • The Great Pike, 1928 fresco based on an earlier a 1904 painting
    The Great Pike, 1928 fresco based on an earlier a 1904 painting
  • Portrait of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, 1929
    Portrait of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, 1929
  • Page depicting the birth of Väinämöinen from the unfinished Great Kalevala [fi], 1920–1930
    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; it houses some of his works and research facilities on Gallen-Kallela himself.[22][23]

Gallen-Kallela Museum in Tarvaspää

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The girl who modeled for the painting was a future parliament member, Maria Raunio.[5]
  2. ^ The frames were painted by Elin Danielson-Gambogi.[7]
  3. ^ 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]
  4. ^ There is also a Jusélius Mausoleum fresco called Spring from 1903.
  5. ^ He was an aide and a friend to the Gallen-Kallela family and always escorted the family's children to school.[20]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Reitala 1997.
  2. ^ Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 5.
  3. ^ Musée d'Orsay 2012.
  4. ^ Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 65.
  5. ^ Pohjolainen 2016.
  6. ^ Hämäläinen 2018.
  7. ^ Okkonen 1916, pp. 248–261.
  8. ^ Sipilä 2019.
  9. ^ Leppänen 2020.
  10. ^ Ainola.
  11. ^ von Donsdorff 2017.
  12. ^ Ruovesi.
  13. ^ Yle 2010.
  14. ^ Saressalo 2018.
  15. ^ a b Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 12.
  16. ^ Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 37.
  17. ^ a b Mikkonen 2017.
  18. ^ Aksa 2018.
  19. ^ Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 38.
  20. ^ Kulttuurikurkkaus 2019.
  21. ^ Martin & Pusa 1985, p. 39.
  22. ^ Gallen-Kallela Museum 2015.
  23. ^ 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 /
    ISBN 978-90-5662-523-8
    .
  • Martin, Timo; Pusa, Erja (1985). Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1865-1931 (hardcover). Translated by John Derome. Tarvaspää:
    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

External links

Media related to Akseli Gallen-Kallela at Wikimedia Commons

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