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Featured Artist at the e.Gallery this week is a 20th Century artist of the Symbolist movement, Akseli Valdemar Gallen-Kallela [Finnish, 1865-1931] Link: http://fineart.elib.com/fineart.php?dir=Alphabetical/Gallen-Kallela_Akseli_Valdemar Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865–1931), was a Finnish painter, graphic artist, designer, and architect, his country’s most famous artist and a major figure in the Art Nouveau and Symbolist movements. He was born in Pori and studied in Helsinki and then in Paris (1884–9, notably at the Académie Julian). In 1894 he settled at Ruovesi in central Finland, where he designed his own home and studio (1894–5) in a romantic vernacular style, together with its furnishings. He traveled widely, however, and was well-known outside his own country, particularly in Germany (he had a joint exhibition with Munch in Berlin in 1895 and exhibited with Die Brücke in Dresden in 1910). In 1911–13 he built a new home and studio for himself at Tarvaspää near Helsinki (now a museum dedicated to him). Gallen-Kallela was deeply patriotic (he volunteered to fight in the War of Independence against Russia in 1918, even though he was in his 50s) and he was inspired mainly by the landscape and folklore of his country, above all by the Finnish national epic Kalevala (‘Land of Heroes’). |
 Lake Keitele |
 Lemminkäinen’s Mother |
 Kullervo cursing |
 Autumn. Fresco in the tomb of Juselius (Pori). |
