The Finnish soul in majesty

About the exhibition "Gallen-Kallela. Myths and Nature" at the Jacquemart-André Museum in Paris.

A short visit to the Jacquemart-André Museum is a must if you want to rediscover the fabulous light of the northern countries: the emblematic painter Akselli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) is on display until 25 July. The artist, who depicted Finland with incomparable lyricism, is particularly well presented around the chosen themes of nature and myths. Indeed, it is by going back to the sources of the legend of the Kalevala, this Finnish epic which inspired Tolkien and from which he drew a unique painted cycle, that the artist criss-crossed the virgin nature of the province of Karelia, in search of the forests where the saga would have taken place. It is therefore easy to imagine that the 70 paintings gathered here could vibrate with all the power of the natural elements, and that the symphonic landscapes are literally inhabited by ancestral, mythological and sacred forces. For Gallen-Kallela is not considered the prophet of modern Finland for nothing: his works of art, inspired even by folklore, did indeed contribute to the emergence of a national feeling at the turn of the century, when the country was struggling to emerge from Russian domination.

Although works by Gallen-Kalella have already been shown in thematic exhibitions on Northern painting, it was the major retrospective devoted to him by the Musée d'Orsay in 2012 that enabled the Parisian public to discover his entire career. By focusing on the question of man's relationship with nature, which evolves over the course of his career, the exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André offers us the opportunity to see the famous "Ad Astra", a painting-object combining Christian and occultist references, as well as the completely magnetic "Clouds on the Lake" and a "Self-Portrait at the Easel", which brings us face-to-face with the painter at the age of 20... when he was still called Axel Gallen.