View entry
Name: Gallen-Kallela, Akseli
Birth Date: 26 Apr 1865 Pori, Finland
Death Date: 7 Mar 1931 Stockholm
First Date: 1908
Last Date: 1910
Profession: Painter
Married: 1890 Mary Helena Slöör b. 20 Nov 1868 Helsinki, d. 26 Aug 1947 Helsinki
Children: Impi Marjatta (1891-1895 Ruovesi, Finland); Aino Kirst (16 Aug 1896 Ruovesi-29 Dec 1980); Jorma Kaijus (1898 Finland-1939 Lemplälä, Finland)
Book Reference: Tom Lawrence
General Information:
https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2007/the-scandinavian-sale-l07104/lot.369.html).: Akseli Gallen-Kallela was forty-four years old when he journeyed to Africa with Mary his wife and their children Kirsti and Jorma. His quest was to discover an untouched wilderness and the continent's indigenous people. He wrote: 'I shall go there to the wilderness to where the natives, lions, ostriches and rhinos dwell. Perhaps there still dwells some branch of the Kalevalian people that has become extinct in Finland. There one can live as oneself and ignore all things modern. I must go there to feel at least for once that I am living! You do understand, I must see it - and paint!'
During the nearly two years he was in Africa Gallen-Kallela painted some 150 paintings. Capturing the vibrant colours, relentless heat and extreme conditions that Gallen-Kallela experienced in Kenya, his paintings express the extraordinary richness of the life he discovered there, from every day events to the recording of epic hunting achievements.
Gallen-Kallela made several well documented safaris, including a month long hunting safari to Southern Kenya with his guide Adolf Heyer; beginning at the Voi station, their trek went through Tsavo northward to the regions of Kibwezi and Makindu along the Athi River and back to Nairobi. Another safari began at the end of March 1910, and included all the family. Lasting almost four months they toured the Tana River and the Eastern slopes of Mount Kenya. Gallen-Kellala made a third safari of four weeks with eleven year old Jorma in the Makindu region. Gallen-Kallela and his wife and children started back to Finland in November 1910.
Akseli Gallen-Kallela’s trip to Africa from 1909–1910 is a well-known and fascinating period in his life. Settling in the area around Nairobi, now the capital of Kenya, Gallen-Kallela recorded views of the life and landscapes of what was then British East Africa...Gallen-Kallela saw East Africa as a pristine paradise where he could realise his dreams. In Afrikka-kirja (Africa Book), his memoirs of the journey, he remarks, …when I arrived, time stood still. Like an ever-evolving Fata Morgana, the visions around us change; everything is just days and nights that merge with the sun, the moon and the stars, in an air so gentle that one forgets one’s own existence.