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Akseli Gallen Kallela
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Early days:
Akseli
Gallen Kallela was a painter born on April 26,1865
in Pori, Finland. He is well known for his illustrations of the
Kalevala which is the Finnish national epic. His work was considered
very significant for the Finnish national identity. Akseli Gallen
Kallela learnt drawing at the Finnish Art Society.
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Career:
He got married to Mary Sloor in 1890.Initially when he was in Paris
his paintings involved several romantic works based on the Kalevala
as well as other landscapes. By 1894,he shifted to Berlin to personally
oversee the combined exhibition of his collections with the works of
Norwegian painter Edvard Munch.In 1895,one of his daughters had expired.After
this, his paintings consisted of extremely violent paintings
like "The Defense of the Sampo”, “Joukahainen's Revenge”,
and “Lemminkainen's Mother”.
For the Paris World Fair in 1900, Gallen Kallela painted
frescoes for the Finnish Pavilion. In these frescoes, his political
ideas became most evident. One of the vipers in the fresco “Ilmarinen
Plowing the Field of Vipers” is wearing the Romanov crown, and
the process of eradicating the vipers from the field was a clear reference
to his longing for an independent Finland.
The Paris Exposition secured Gallen Kallela's stature as a prominent
Finnish artist. In 1901 he was commissioned to paint the fresco, “Kullervo
Goes to War”, for the concert hall of the Helsinki Student's
Union.
From 1923 to 1926, he lived in the United States, where an exhibition
of his work toured several cities. In 1925, he started the illustrations
for his "Great Kalevala". But this remained incomplete as
he died of pneumonia in Stockholm on March 7,1931 while returning after
a lecture in Copenhagen, Denmark
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