Lot 14: AXSELI GALLEN-KALLELA

Rare and early carpet
Produced by Suomen Käsityön Ystävät, Finland (The Friends of Finnish Handicrafts).

381 x 146.5 cm (150 x 57 5/8 in)

Handwoven wool.

c. 1900

Ulf Ha°rd af Segerstad, <em>Finskt konsthantverk, Stockholm</em>, 1968, p. 51, fig. 2 for a similar example

Akseli Gallen-Kallela, one of the leading Finnish artists of the early 20th century, painted the frescoes for the Finnish Pavilion at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. A staunch supporter of independence from Russia, Gallen-Kallela painted politically charged works and later fought along the front during the Finnish Civil War. Widely travelled, Gallen-Kallela studied at the Acad&#233;mie Julian in Paris; exhibited with Edvard Munch in Berlin; painted expressionistic canvases in Kenya; and lived for a period at the Taos art colony in New Mexico. In the years before his death, he illustrated The Kalevala, Elias L&#246;nnrot&#8217;s compilation of Finnish oral folktales and myths.