Gallen-Kallela, Spring Night, 1914, Private coll.

Gallen-Kallela, Myths and Nature

A lecture on the exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris

(until 25 July 2022)

with Chris Boïcos

In the last few years, Paris has organized in-depth retrospectives dedicated to the great Northern European painters of the 19th century, who have been seldom shown and are often little-known outside their native countries.

This season is the turn of the Finns: The Musée Jacquemart-André is holding a major exhibition of the exquisite Art Nouveau painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) and the Petit Palais is showcasing Albert Edelfelt (1854-1905), a painter trained in Paris and the first great Finnish painter of the 19th century.

Gallen-Kallela was also trained in Paris, where he assimilated his Post-Impressionist style of creamy brushwork and rich, resonant color. His exploration of Finnish landscape and northern mythology belong to the international currents of European Symbolism of the late 19th century. His work is imbued with the nature mysticism and also the quest for a profound national identity through art, typical of Central and Eastern European painting of the Art Nouveau period.

This very sensitive exhibition, co-organized with the Gallen-Kallela Museum in Espoo, Finland, reveals him as one of the truly great European painters of his era.