Blog — Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865–1931) transformed the myths of the Kalevala, Finland’s national epic, into some of the most haunting images of Nordic art. Moving from realism toward Symbolism during the 1890s, Gallen-Kallela became deeply interested in folk poetry, spirituality, mythology, and what his museum describes as the “inner world of the human mind.” Rather than treating folklore as picturesque fantasy, his paintings often emphasize its harsher elements: death, vengeance, supernatural landscapes, doomed heroes, and resurrection. Gallen-Kallelan Museo