Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Akseli Gallen-Kallela gave Finland its national imagery. He is best known for scenes from the Kalevala, the Finnish epic, painted with strong outlines, flat areas of colour and a sense of myth, and for crisp, bright landscapes of Finnish lakes and snow.

He was born in Pori in 1865, studied in Helsinki and then in Paris at the Académie Julian and the Atelier Cormon. He began as a realist painting peasant life, then moved toward a bolder, Symbolist style. Major works include The Defence of the Sampo, Lemminkäinen’s Mother and the Aino triptych. The Ateneum in Helsinki and the Gallen-Kallela Museum at his former studio in Espoo hold much of his work. He died in 1931.

A Winter Landscape and Boy with a Crow show his clear light and graphic sense of design.