Ensam är Du, naken
intill midjan gudar lik
med blick i ändlös vidd
hvilande, men draken,
den stora magt som rik
dig gjort, i bojor smidd
under dig är vaken.
(Gallen-Kallela's poem from 1916, in A. Gallen-Kallela: elämä ja taide by Onni Okonen, 1949)

Akseli Gallen-Kallela was born Axél Waldemar Gallén in Pori into a Swedish-speaking family. His father, Peter Gallén, worked as the police chief of Tyrvää and cashier in Pori before starting private practice as a lawyer. Mathilda (Wahlroos) Gallén, the artist's mother, was the daughter of a sea captain; she was interested in spiritualism and encouraged her son in his artistic aspirations.

At the age of 11 Gallén was sent to Helsinki where studied at a Swedish language grammar school. From 1878 to 1881 he attended the evening course at the drawing school of the Finnish Art Society, continued then his his studies at the Central School for Applied Arts, and enrolled as a day student at the drawing school. He also studied at Adolf von Becker's private academy, before moving in 1884 to Paris, where he entered the Académie Julian. "I hope that something comes out of his," said Albert Edelfelt to his mother. (Minä palaan jalanjäljilleni: Akseli-Gallen Kallelan elämä ja taide by Janne Gallen-Kallela Sirén, 2002, p. 74) During the following years he divided his time between Paris and Finland, where he often lived in remote villages and depicted ordinary country people in his drawings and paintings.

From this period dates Old Woman and Cat (1885), in which an ugly, old woman, dressed in rags, gives his open, empty hand to a cat sitting in front of her. In his Paris studio Gallen painted Demasquée (1888), a portrait of a young naked woman sitting on a sofa. On the table near her is a human skull. Naked girls or children Gallén portrayed in a number of other works, among them In the Sauna (1889) and Ad Astra (1907). "The primitive values of beauty he was seeking often revealed themselves to him in the fresh but melancholy features of a young country girl or in the sinewy face of the poor, hard-bitten man of the wilderness. Spirituality and a plastic beauty of line raises many a sketch from the level of a mere study to that of high universal art." (A. Gallén-Kallela: Piirustuksia Teckningar Drawings, edited by Onni Okkonen, 1947, p. 21) For his sketch books Gallén drew caricatures of his Nordic friends in Paris, among them Albert Edelfelt, the Norwegian painter Adam Dörnberger, and the Swedish writer August Strindberg.

In 1890 Gallén married Mary Slöör; they had three children, Impi Marjatta, Kirsti, and Jorma. Gallen-Kallela used his wife as the model in Madonna (1891) and The Aino Myth (1891), a triptych. In the same year Gallén traveled with his wife and the Swedish artist, Count Louis Sparre, in northern Russian Karelia, where he collected material for his depictions of the Kalevala. The trip started the cultural trend known as Karelianism, which inspired writers, artists, and composers. Gallen-Kallela's journey to Kuusamo gave birth to Paanajärvi Herder Boy (1892) and The Great Black Woodpecker (1892-94). "The black woodpecker has always been my friend," he later said, but he had to shoot one in order to have a model. (Kallela-kirja by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1924, p. 221)

Elias Lönnrot's mythical history of the Finns, the Kalevala, served Gallen-Kallela as means to express patriotic feelings, or his personal disappointments and hopes. Although the public regarded his work as highly national in character, it developed under the influence of international impulses, especially symbolism and the Jugendstil, or art noveau as it was called in the French and English-speaking countries.

In Symposium (1893) Gallen-Kallela portrayed his usual table friends, Oskar Merikanto, Robert Kajanus, and Jean Sibelius, suddenly glimpsing something profound in the middle of heavy drinking. Another independent and shocking version of the work, The Problem (or Kajustaflan) was made in 1894. A flayed woman sits on the table in front Gallen-Kallela and his companions. Later the figure was cut out and the whole left side of the picture. The name "Symposium" comes from Plato, and can be translated as a "drinking party".

At the time of painting Symposium and Conceptio artist (1895), Gallen-Kallela corresponded with the Swedish writer Adolf Paul, who encouraged him to read Nietzsche. There are some elements and themes from Paul's short stories 'A Dream' and 'A Tale from the Wilderness' in Conceptio artist, but Gallen-Kallela's work is not an illustration but a continuation of them.

In 1895 Gallén held an exhibition together with the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) in Berlin. The two future national icons did not became true friends. One version of Munch's most famous piece of art, The Cry, was seen in the exhibition – Gallen-Kallela never produced a single painting which would gain similar fame. In the wilderness of Ruovesi he planned and constructed a house, 'Kalela,' a combination of studio and residence, which became one of the finest examples of national-romantic architecture. During his trip to London he had bought a graphic press, and at Kalela he started to produce graphic works. He also began to use the name Gallen-Kallela – officially he changed his name in 1907. To study fresco painting he traveled in 1897 in Italy.

In Ruovesi Gallen-Kallela created some his famous Kalevala paintings, The Defense of the Sampo (1895), The Revenge of Joukahainen (1897), Fratricide (1897), Lemminkäinen's Mother (1897), and Kullervo's Curse (1899). These works belong to best achievements of the Golden Age of Finnish art. During this patriotic era a number of artists, writers, and composers created their visions of Finnishness. Jean Sibelius' Kullervo premiered in 1892. He was annoyed by comparisons: "My life and Gallén's took their course under the sign of the fatherland. I was [however] already someone else in 1896. But the critics and the public. [They are] Dumber than God is wise!" (Jean Sibelius by Tomi Mäkelä, 2011, p. 118)

Gallen-Kallela's major work in 1900 was the Finland Pavilion frescos for the Paris World's Fair. The Pavilion became an aesthetic manifestation of national identity. At that time Finland was part of the Russian Empire, but had enjoyed in many ways privileged position. However, the strengthening of the Finnish-language culture and economic growth increased differences between Finland and Russia. The national awakening was answered with censorship and Russification policies. Ilmarinen Ploughing a Filed of Vipers, one of Gallen-Kallela's frescoes, was a thinly veiled political statement. Gallen-Kallela used the colors of red, white and blue of Russia in the decorative snakes, which are following the task of the strong hero. In the poem Ilmarinen successfully performs the impossible task, and also two others, to get the daughter of Pohjola.

With the help of his son Jorma and other assistants Gallen-Kallela painted the frescoes anew in 1928 in the cupola of the National Museum entrance hall, but this time the work did not bring any joy to him – he felt he only repeated what he had done earlier. However, the art historian and critic Onni Okkonen considered Gallen-Kallela one of the greatest fresco painters of our time, whose work belongs at the level of the Renaissance masters. In 1901 Gallen-Kallela painted Kullervo's Departure for War for the music auditorium of the Old Students's Union in Helsinki. Kullervo is portrayed as an archaic prince, riding on a white horse and blowing his horn, challenging the whole world.

After the Civil War (1917-18) Gallen-Kallela made a watercolor painting, in which Kullervo appears as a broken man, who is contemplating suicide. The most important Kalevala character for the artist was Väinämöinen, a singer of magic songsand the leader of his tribe. The Aino Myth deals with the theme of an old man and an young girl. In the triptych the naked Aino chooses death by drowning rather than the embrace of Väinämöinen's arms. Later Gallen-Kallela depicted Väinämöinen in a more heroic light, not far from a Nietzschean Übermensch. His friend Adolf Paul had urged him in 1894 to read Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra and Götzendämmerun, but Gallen-Kallela read German poorly.

From 1901 to 1903 Gallen-Kallela worked on the Sigrid Jusélius Mausoleum in Pori, perhaps his most ambitious work. The frescoes started soon to deteriorate and were destroyed by a fire in 1931. Later they were repainted by his son on the basis of his sketches. Although the frescoes occupied much of his time, he had other projects, too. Vassily Kandinsky invited him to exhibit in Munich with his Phalanx society. Gallen-Kallela sent 36 works. One of them, a sketch for Kullervo's Departure for War, possibly gave a push to the development to The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) group. In 1904 he participated in the Vienna Secession exhibition; his work The Autumn (Syksy) was bought by Karl Wittgenstein. On a trip to the Alps, Mathias Zdarsky gave Gallen-Kallela lessons in slalom. 

When the Russian writer Maxim Gorky hid in Finland in 1906, Gallen-Kallela helped him to escape from Russian authorities. In 1907 he was awarded a gold medal by the Hungarian state. On his return from Hungary he painted in Vienna the portrait of the composer Gustav Mahler. Gallen-Kallela's illustrations for Aleksis Kivi's novel Seitsemän veljestä (Seven Brothers) came out in 1908.

"Kohotin kiväärini ja tähtäsin, mutta en malttanut laukaista. Katselin sitä ja tähtäsin uudestaan. Kolmannenkin kerran vielä katseltuani ja tähdättyäni en malttanut painaa liipasinta. Mene ja elä, sinä olet liian kaunis ja olet myös liian lähellä, Sinulle sattui se onni, ettö murhaajasi liiaksi ihastui sinun  kauneuteesi." (Afrikka-kirja: Kallela-kirja II by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 2nd edition, 1964, p. 185)

In 1909 Gallen-Kallela took his family to British East Africa (present-day Kenya) where he spent two years and painted some 150 expressionistic pictures in bright colors. Before leaving Finland he made Väinämöinen's Departure (1906) and The Boat's Lament (1906-07), both reflecting his yearning to sail "away to loftier regions, to the land beneath the heavens." Gallen-Kallela lived in the vicinity of Nairobi like a British Lord, hunted eagerly, met Theodore Roosevelt, the former President of the United States, and made safaris to Mount Kenya and River Tana. This period, one the happiest in his life, he described in Afrikka-kirja (1931). Nevertheless, he did not accept the colonial system, and expressed his disgust when his German friend had one of the servants lashed. Upon returning to Finland  in February 1911, Gallen-Kallela started to plan and built the Tarvaspää studio-villa, which was completed a few years later.

Following successful participation at the Venice Biennale in 1914, the Italian minister of education commissioned Gallen-Kallela's self-portrait for the Uffizi Gallery, which he finished in 1916. Gallen-Kallela's idealistic view of national unity was shattered by the bloody and traumatic Civil War of 1918. He had portrayed admiringly but without sentimentality ordinary country people "untouched by civilization." For urban working-class types – and Socialism – he had no sympathy. One charcoal drawing from 1905, named 'Forces of disruption,' presents a group of rioting revolutionaries, whom one would not like to have next-door neighbors. Ironically, Gallen-Kallela portrayed himself as a member of the group. In Kallela-kirja (The Kallela-Book), published in 1924, he tells that "märkähatut" (Wet Hats) haunted him in his dreams during the civil war as corrupters of the people. The expression comes from the Kalevala poem, which tells about an ugly cow herder, Wet-Hat, who kills cowardly Lemminkäinen, the hero.

The White Army needed Gallen-Kallela's artistic vision in 1918 in the design of flags, decorations, and uniforms. Moreover, he served as first adjutant of C.G.E. Mannerheim, who was briefly Regent of Finland. In the new republic, Gallen-Kallela was a towering cultural figure. He received an honorary professorship, he was deputy chairman of the Kalevala Society, he participated in the founding of the first 'Finnish Academy of the Arts,' and served chairman of its special council, the Finnish Art Society, which was established within the Fine Arts Association by a group of veteran artists opposing modernism.

The negative attitude of the rising generation of artists toward Gallen-Kallela surfaced at the Finnish Artists' Guild's meeting in October 1912. There Tyko Sallinen (1879-1955), the leading expressionist painter, had called him "a shit pants." His friends considered him a real Renaissance character, full of ideas. In the 1920s Gallen-Kallela himself felt that his creative energy was dying down. He hoped his son Jorma would continue his legacy.

On the other hand Gallen-Kallela, with his quick tempered reactions toward new phenomena, from cubism to jazz, did not smoothen disputes. Secretly he had experimented with cubist forms. Gallen-Kallela's great illustration work, the Koru-Kalevala (Decorative Kalevala), published by WSOY, was a burst of these ideas. It in fact combined with consideration influences from cubism with expressionistic form language. Curiously, at that time, he had an affair with the young illustrator Martta Wendelin (1893–1986), employed by WSOY. She asked in her diary: "Happiness? Is it for us?" The conclusion was no. (Kirja-arvio by Helena Ruuska; Päivi Ahdeoja-Määttä: Kultahiekkaa ihmisten poluille. Martta Wendelinin elämä, Helsingin Sanomat 27.1.2024)

In 1923 Gallen-Kallela left Finland for the United States. His successful exhibition at the Chicago Art Institute led to other exhibitions. In 1924 he settled with his family in Taos, New Mexico. There he painted among others a portrait of the Indian chief Clear Water, the Idian Siu Ohutaa, and sevaral mystic fantasy works. While in Taos, he met the writer D.H. Lawrence, who was his neighbour. They discussed late into the night. In Chicago, where he celebrated his 60-year anniversary, he produced several illustrations for the Great-Kalevala. He also wrote a poem of the God of Perm. Gallen-Kallela had recorded decades his thoughts and impressions in his sketch books and diaries, and sometimes tried his hand as a poet.

Gallen-Kallela returned to Finland in 1926. Tarvaspää needed repairing and then came the work with the frescoes at the National Museum. In 1930 he made a contact with the Kansallispankki Bank for a large fresco depicting the Häme Fair. He produced a number of sketches and studies for the work but never finished it. Gallen-Kallela died in Stockholm on March 7, 1931, after contracting pneumonia.

Gallen-Kallela was also highly innovative in the applied arts. He combined influences from the international arts and crafts movement with national motifs. He designed furniture, textiles, metal objects, stained glass, etc., which are now seen in Tarvaspää, the home to the Gallen-Kallela Museum, and in Kalela. Supported by the Kalevala Society he spend in the 1920s much time in preparing his illustrated version of the Kalevala. Koru-Kalevala (The Jewel Kalevala) was a preliminary version of the major project, Suur-Kalevala (Great-Kalevala). After the death of his father, Jorma Gallen-Kallela started to edit Amerikka-kirja (the America-Book), based on his father's experiences in the Unites States. However, he died in 1939 during the Winter War, and the work was not finished. Also much other material, Gallen-Kallela's notebooks, diaries, and sketch books have not been published, mainly due to a long family conflict.

For further reading: Axel Gallen by Wentzel Hagelstam (1904); Akseli Gallen-Kallela by Ludwig Wennervirta (1914); Akseli Gallen-Kallelan kalevalataidetta, ed. by Onni Okkonen (1935);  A. Gallén-Kallela: Piirustuksia Teckningar Drawings, edited by Onni Okkonen (1947); A. Gallen-Kallela: elämä ja taide by Onni Okkonen (1949); Isäni Akseli Gallen-Kallela, vol. I, by Kirsti Gallen-Kallela (1964); Isäni Akseli Gallen-Kallela, vol. II, by Kirsti Gallen-Kallela (1965); Akseli Gallen-Kallelan Väinämöiset by Seppo Knuuttila (1978); Juhla-Kalevala ja Akseli Gallen-Kallelan Kalevalataide, ed. by Aivi Gallen-Kallela (1981); Muistelmia nuoruusvuosiltani 1896-1931 by Kirsti Gallen-Kallela (1982); Akseli Gallen-Kallela: elämäkerrallinen rapsodia by Timo Martin & Douglas Sivén (1984); Akseli Gallen-Kallela: 1865-1931 by Timo Martin (1985); Taistelu Akseli Gallen-Kallelan taiteesta, ed. by Kaari Raivio (1988); Kalela: Gallen-Kallelan erämaa-ateljee by Aivi Gallen-Kallela (1991); Isäni Akseli-Gallen-Kallela by Kirsti Gallen-Kallela (1992); Erämaan kutsu by Aivi Gallen-Kallela (1992); Päivänkukka by Arto Seppälä (1992); "Koko elämäni on siveltimessäni!" by Aivi Gallen-Kallela (1993); Akseli Gallen-Kallela: Artist and Visionary by Eija Kämäräinen (1994); Akseli Gallen-Kallela by Marjatta Levanto (1996); Akseli Gallen-Kallela's Bookplate Designs by Heikki Malme (1996); Suuren isän varjossa, ed. by Kaari Raivio (1997); Sanan ja tunteen voimalla: Akseli Gallen-Kallelan kirjeitä by Juha Ilvas (1996); Akseli Gallen-Kallela, ed. by Juha Ilvas (1996); 'Akseli Gallen-Kallela' by Aimo Reitala, in 100 Faces from Finland, ed. by Ulpu Marjomaa (2000); Minä palaan jalanjäljilleni: Akseli Gallen-Kallelan elämä ja taide by Janne Gallen-Kallela-Sirén (2001); Axél Gallén and the Constructed Nation by Janne Gallen-Kallela-Sirén (2001); Akseli Amerikassa by Kaari Raivio (2005); Akseli Gallen-Kallela: The Spirit of Finland, edited by David Jackson, Patty Wageman (2006); Fill Your Soul!: Paths of Research into the Art of Akseli Gallen-Kallela, edited by The Gallen-Kallela Museum (2011; Sibelius and the World of Art, ed. by Hanna-Leena Paloposki et al. (2014); Axel Gallén: Tyrväältä Pariisiin: opintie taiteilijaksi 1881-1884 by Marja-Liisa Rönkkö (2015); Akseli Gallen-Kallela by Marja Lahelma (2018); Totuudenetsijät: esoteerinen henkisyys Akseli Gallen-Kallelan, Pekka Halosen ja Hugo Simbergin taiteessa by Nina Kokkinen (2019); Veljekset Gallén by Viljami Puustinen (2020); Mary Gallen-Kallela: olisit villiä villimpi by Helena Ruuska (2021); Göstan pieni taidekirjasto. 6, Akseli Gallen-Kallela by Tarja Talvitie (2021); Affisch djävulens hjulmeteor: om Akseli Gallen-Kallelas Bil-Bol by Kenneth Danielsen (2023) 

Selected books:

• Fosterländsk hustafla: ord till ung och gammal att i hjärtat gömmas / J. H. Erkko, 1900 (illustrator)
• Seitsemän veljestä / Aleksis Kivi, 1908 (illustrator)
  - Seven Brothers: A Novel / Aleksis Kivi (translated by Alex. Matson; illustrated by Akseli Galle´n-Kallela, 1952)
• Akseli Gallén-Kallela: teckningar, akvareller, etsningar, 1909 
• 40 valosyövytystä, 1912
• Kalevala / Elias Lönnrot, 1922 (Koru-Kalevala; illustrator)
  - Kalevala (översatt av Björn Collinder; med illustrationer av Axel Gallen-Kallela, 1948)
  - The Magic Songs of the Finns: Sung Since the Time Immemorial / compiled and edited by Elias Lönnrot in 1880 (translated into English by John Abercromby in 1898, illustrated by Akseli Gallen-Kallela in 1922, 2011)
• Kallela-kirja 1: Iltapuhde-jutelmia, 1924 (edited by Martti Raitio)
• Afrikka-kirja: Kallela-kirja II, 1931 (edited by Jorma Gallen-Kallela)
• Kalevala / Elias Lönnrot, 1986 (illuminations and paintings by Akseli Gallen-Kallela; transl. by W. F. Kirby; ed. and designed by Aivi Gallen-Kallela)
• Seiniä, seiniä! Antakaa hänelle seiniä!: Jusélius-mausoleumin freskojen esitöitä ja luonnoksia = Walls, Walls! Give Him Walls!: Sketches and Preliminary Works for the Frescoes in the Jusélius Mausoleum, 1991 (catalogue editors: Erja Pusa, Kirsi Kaisla) 
• Sanan ja tunteen voimalla: Akseli Gallen-Kallelan kirjeitä = A Self-Portrait in Words: The Letters of Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1996 (compiled by Juha Ilvas; translation: Silja Kudel)