Norwegian Woods (OT)

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 (illustration, below). His work is considered very important for the Finnish national identity. He changed his name from Gallen 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. 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 (1881-4) 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 Dörnberger, and the Swedish writer August Strindberg.

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, like the Aino Myth, and by several landscape paintings.

In December 1894, Gallen-Kallela moved to Berlin to oversee the joint exhibition of his works with the works of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. Here he became acquainted with the Symbolists.

In March 1895, he received a telegram that his daughter Impi Marjatta had died from diphtheria. This would prove to be a turning point in his work. While his works had previously been romantic, after his daughter's death Gallen-Kallela painted more aggressive works like the Defense of the Sampo, Joukahainen's Revenge, Kullervo Cursing and Lemminkäinen's Mother.

On his return from Germany, Gallen studied print-making and visited London to deepen his knowledge, and in 1898 studied fresco-painting in Italy.

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, later heard about this, he invited Gallen-Kallela to design the flags, official decorations and uniforms for the newly independent Finland. In 1919 he was appointed aide-de-camp to Mannerheim.

From December 1923 to May 1926, Gallen-Kallela lived in the United States, where an exhibition of his work toured several cities, and where he visited the Taos art-colony in New Mexico to study indigenous American art. In 1925 he began the illustrations for his "Great Kalevala". This was still unfinished when he died of pneumonia in Stockholm on 7 March 1931, while returning from a lecture in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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.

Evil came to me and turned off the light. I flew to the forest. The forest gave me a pole. The pole showed me the road. The road brought me to the village. A woman was baking bread. The daughter kneaded the dough. My dear woman, just a little bread... The woman gave me bread. I gave the bread to the fisherman. The fisherman gave me his fish. I gave the fish to the Rie-man. The Rie-man gave me rye. I gave the rye to the pig. The pig gave me half her side. I gave the side to the dog. The dog barked me a squirrel. I gave the squirrel to the priest. The priest gave me a shirt. I gave the shirt to a poor one. The poor one gave me the wage of God. And the wage of God brought me to the Eagle. The Eagle gave me half her wing. With the wing I flew across nine seas and half the tenth, where the hens carry golden claws, where chickens walk on a copper line, where the ground is red, and the leaves are shimmering. And then I started on a poem: I created for the goodman a lynx fur. I created for the wife a robe of clothes, for the boy a fox fur beanie, for the girl a bunad, and for the servant red pants…