Akseli Gallen-Kallela was a Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. His work is considered a very important aspect of the Finnish national identity. He changed his name from Gallén to Gallen-Kallela in 1907.
Akseli Gallen-Kallela
Moonlit Landscape, 1881, his first oil painting
Boy and a Crow, 1884 (fi)
Decaying Sander, 1884 (fi)
The Kalevala is a 19th-century compilation of epic poetry, compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory voyages between the peoples of the land of Kalevala called Väinölä and the land of Pohjola and their various protagonists and antagonists, as well as the construction and robbery of the epic mythical wealth-making machine Sampo.
Kalevala. The Finnish national epic by Elias Lönnrot. First edition, 1835.
Elias Lönnrot
The statue of Väinämöinen by (1888) decorates the Old Student House in Helsinki
A caricature of Elias Lönnrot by A. W. Linsen: "Unus homo nobis currendo restituit rem" – "One man saved everything for us by running".