Studies
with Adolf von Becker; School of the Finnish Arts Society Helsinki); Académie Julian (Paris); with Fernand Cormon (Paris)
Career
1884 – moves to Paris; begins painting subjects from the Kalevala, the national epic poem of Finland
1890-92 – travels throughout eastern Finland documenting folk culture
1894-95 - builds studio in Ruovesi (south central Finland)
1898 - studies fresco painting in Italy
1900 – commissioned to decorate vault of the Finnish pavilion at the Exposition universelle (Paris), contributes furniture and textile designs
1901 – completes mural painting Kullervo Taking the Field, commissioned for the Students’ Corporation Building (Helsinki); begins decoration of the Juselius family chapel in Pori
1911-13 - builds studio at Tarvaspää (near Helsinki, now Gallen-Kallela Museum)
1920s – commissioned to decorate vault of the National Museum in Helsinki
Travels
Paris (1884-89); Karelia (1890-92); France and Germany (1892-94, 1895); Italy (1898); Africa (1909-10)
Important Artworks
Boy and the Crow, 1884 (Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki)
Old Woman with a Cat, 1885 (Art Museum, Turku)
Waterfall at Mäntykoski, 1892-94 (Private Collection)
Symposium, 1896 (Private Collection)
Defense of the Sampo, 1896 (Art Museum, Turku)
Lemminkäinen’s Mother, 1897 (Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki)
Kullervo's Curse, 1897-99 (Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki)
Readings
Dreams of a Summer Night. Exhibition catalogue. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1986
Ojanperä, Riita, ed. The Kalevala in Images: 160 Years of Finnish Art Inspired by the Kalevala. Exhibition catalogue. Helsinki: Finnish National Gallery, 2009
Smith, John Boulton. The Golden Age of Finnish Art: Art Nouveau and the National Spirit. Helsinki: Otava, 1985
Images
The Gallen-Kallela Home Museum near Helsinki.
Gallen-Kallela's studio in Ruovesi.