Akseli Gallen-Kallela, View from the Terrace (Kangasala).
Signed and dated Gallen Palo 9 VI 1917. Oil on canvas, laid on board, 30.5x32 cm.
Wear due to age and use.
Lawyer Arne Cederholm.
The work was painted on 9 June 1917 in Kangasala on the terrace of the Palo mansion during a party at the home of the Attourney-at-Law Arne Cederholm. Gallen and Cederholm were old friends and at the beginning of the First World War they founded the association ‘Sundt Förnuft’ (Common Sense), whose main purpose was to ‘distance themselves from world war and madness’. The two gentlemen were the only members of the association. During the same celebration, Gallen painted another version of this motif, which is most likely dedicated to Ville Vallgren. The painting is now in the collection of the Tampere Art Museum.
Akseli Gallen-Kallela is counted among Finland's most famous artists, born in 1865 in Pori. He studied at the Drawing School of the Finnish Art Society in Helsinki and later at the Académie Julian in Paris. He worked across various art forms such as painting, graphics, illustrations, textiles, architecture, and even designed military uniforms. Akseli Gallen-Kallela's first significant work, 'Old Woman with a Cat,' challenged the ideals of its time and paved the way for realism in Finnish painting.
Gallen-Kallela was primarily known for his paintings and illustrations for the Finnish national epic, 'Kalevala.' In 1900, he executed dome paintings with Kalevala motifs for the Finnish pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris. His visual language is often described as naturalistic, symbolic, and expressionistic
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