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Axel Gallén was born
Axel Gallén was born on April 26th, 1865, into a Swedish-speaking family in Pori.
Image: Akseli Gallen-Kallela's birth home in Pori.
26.04.1865Move to Tyrvää
He moved to Jaatsi Grange in Tyrvää, and spent his childhood there.
Image: Jaatsi, the childhood home.
1867Move to Helsinki
Axel moved to Helsinki and began his studies at a Swedish-speaking normallyceum.
Image: The Gallén brothers Axel, Uno and Walter in 1876. Photo: GKM
1876Axel to quit school at 16 and focus solely on art studies
Axel quit school at 16 to focus solely on art studies. He studied at the drawing school of the Finnish Art Society between 1881 and 1884.
Image: Full Moon Scenery, oil, 1881 (the first of its kind by the artist). The Gallen-Kallela Museum. Photo: Jukka Paavola / GKM.
1881Axel painted Boy with a Crow in Tyrvää in the summer, and moved to Paris in the fall.
Axel painted Boy with a Crow in Tyrvää in the summer, and moved to Paris in the fall to study at Académie Julian and Atelier Cormon from 1884 to 1889.
Image: Axel Gallén and other art students in Académie Julian in the 1880s.
1884Summer in Finland and studies in Paris
Summer in Finland. Painted Old Woman with a Cat in Salo in the southwest. In Paris, the artist painted Model Reclining Against a Tall Easel, Self-Portrait at the Easel and Paris Boulevard.
Image: Old Woman with a Cat, oil on canvas, 1885. Turku Art Museum. Photo: Douglas Sivén / GKM
1885The myth of Aino and return to Finland
Painted his first Kalevala-inspired oil, the triptych called "Aino", and returned home.
Image: The Aino Myth (triptych), oil, 1889. The Bank of Finland.
1889Marriage to Mary Slöör
Marriage to Mary Slöör witnessed by families on May 20th, 1890. The honeymoon took them to Kuhmo and Russian Carelia. The young couple set up their first home in Malmi, Helsinki.
Image: Hibernal Scenery (A Grey Day in Malmi), oil, 1890, privately owned. Photo: Hannu Aaltonen / GKM
1890Birth of baby daughter Impi Marjatta as well as the 2nd version of the Aino triptych
Image: Madonna (Mary and Marjatta), oil, 1891. The Gallen-Kallela Museum. Photo: Petri Summanen / GKM
1891Imatra and Vehmersalmi
January painting trip to Imatra and in the summer to Vehmersalmi, resulting in several oil paintings with the Imatrankoski rapids as a motif.
Image: Imatra in Winter, oil, 1893, private collection. Photo: Douglas Sivén / GKM
1893Baby daughter died. Kalela got completed
The artist's daughter Impi Marjatta died of diphtheria. Axel was on an exhibitionary trip in Berlin when he got the telegraph about her decease, whereupon he returned to Finland unhesitantly. In the autumn, a studio-home called "Kalela" got completed in Ruovesi.
1894Daughter Kirsti was born in August. Axel did his first etchings and stained-glass pieces
Image: My First Study in London, stained glass, 1895, private collection. Photo: Douglas Sivén / GKM
1895Grand Kalevala-inspired paintings of 1896 to 1899
Image: Lemminkäinen's Mother, tempera, 1897. Ateneum art museum. Photo: Douglas Sivén / GKM
Kuva: Akseli Gallen-Kallela: Lemminkäisen äiti, (yksityiskohta) 1897, tempera.
01.01.1970Axel travelled to Italy to acquaint himself with frescoes. Son Jorma was born
Image: Colour flacons for frescoes of Gallen-Kallela. The Gallen-Kallela Museum. Photo: Jukka Paavola / GKM
1898The Paris World Exposition
Magna opera for the world exposition in Paris included furniture, fabrics for the Iris room and Kalevala-themed frescoes for the ceiling of the central room of the Finnish Pavilion.
Image: an easy chair designed for the Iris room, wood and cloth, 1900. The Gallen-Kallela Museum. Photo: GKM
1900Frescoes for the music room of Helsinki Student House. Frescoes for the Jusélius Mausoleum in Pori from 1901 to 1903
Image: Artist Axel Gallén with his assistants painting the fresco Spring inside of the Jusélius mausoleum in Pori. Photo: GKM
01.01.1970Travels and residence changes
Travels in Europe in early 1904 with the summer spent at the Lintula villa on the shore of Lake Keitele near Konginkangas. In the autumn a relocation to Kerava.
Image: Akseli Gallen-Kallela: Keitele, oil, 1904, private collection. Photo: Katja Hagelstam / GKM
1904Move to the Alberga country seat in Leppävaara. Axel Gallén changed his name officially to "Akseli Gallen-Kallela"
Image: The old main building of the Alberga country seat, where the Gallen-Kallelas lived from 1906 to 1908 and again in 1911.
1907In British East Africa
Gallen-Kallela lived with his family in British East Africa, in what is contemporary Kenya. This produced a period of expressionist works of art. In addition, he amassed a collection of items of ethnography and zoology.
Image: A Tropical Palm Tree on the River Tana, oil, 1909-1910. The Gallen-Kallela Museum. Photo: Douglas Sivén / GKM
1909Building of Tarvaspää 1911-1913
Image: The Tarvaspää tower under construction in 1912. Photo: GKM
Kuva: Tarvaspään tornia rakennetaan (yksityiskohta) 1912. Kuva: GKM
1911The Venice Biennial
Akseli Gallen-Kallela took part in the Venice Biennial.
Image: The illustrated catalogue for the 1914 Venetian Biennial from the artist's home library. The Gallen-Kallela Museum.
1914Move back to Kalela in order to avoid the unrest of World War I
Image: Autumnal Scenery From Kalela (to the Pääskynlahti Cove), oil, 1915-1918, private collection. Photo: GKM
1915Self-portrait for the Uffizi Gallery
Image: Self-portrait for the Uffizi Gallery, oil, 1916. The Gallen-Kallela Museum. Photo: GKM / Douglas Sivén.
1916At the order of Commander-in-Chief Mannerheim, for supervisor and manager of the cartographic office and the printing press of the main headquarters as well as the Mint
Image: T. Vikstedt: Gallén Interviewed in the Midst of His Meritorious War Service, Cartoon for the magazine Fyren, 1918. Photo: GKM
1918As aide-de-camp to C.G.E. Mannerheim and nomination for professor
Image: Akseli Gallen-Kallela as aide-de-camp of Marshall Mannerheim in 1919. Photo: GKM
1919The illustration and supervision of the printing of "Koru-Kalevala" from 1920 to 1922
The illustration and supervision of the printing of "Koru-Kalevala" from 1920 to 1922
The opus came out in 1922.
Image: The Illustrated Kalevala: the initial and final images for XXXIII Poem, Indian ink, 1922. The Gallen-Kallela Museum. Photo: GKM
1922In the United States between 1923 and 1924
The Gallen-Kallelas moved to North America, where they lived for instance in Chicago and Taos, New Mexico, where Akseli acquainted himself with native American art.
Image: Our Home in Taos, oil, 1925, private collection. Photo: GKM / Jukka Paavola
1923Return to Tarvaspää. The studio is refurbished for residential use
Image: Akseli Gallen-Kallela at work on a gargoyle-like protrusion sticking out of a tower of Tarvaspää in 1927.
Kuva: Akseli Gallen-Kallela työstää Tarvaspään lohikäärmeen muotoista vesikourua (yksityiskohta) 1927 - 1928. Kuva: Gallen-Kallelan Museo
1927Paintwork of the National Museum's Kalevala frescoes on the basis of the frescoes for the Paris World's Fair
Image: Akseli Gallen-Kallela painting The Forging of the Sampo in 1928.
1928Illustration of the Complete Kalevala from 1928 to 1931
Illustration of an unabridged version of the national epic in Tarvaspää from 1928 to 1931.
The tome did not get completed.
Image: The Complete Kalevala: III Poem beginning with the line: "The mountain maketh the wind...", watercolour, 1925. The Gallen-Kallela Museum. Photo: Douglas Sivén / GKM
Akseli Gallen-Kallela died
Akseli Gallen-Kallela died of pneumonia in Stockholm, Sweden, on March 7th, 1931, on the way back from a lecture visit to Copenhagen.
Image: The artist's headstone and tomb in the Hietaniemi Cemetery, Helsinki in 1931. Photo: GKM
07.03.1931