Lot 213: Akseli Gallen-Kallela , Finnish 1865-1931 60-vuotis onnittelu runosäe sekä uuniikkityö Professori Robert Kajanukselle (60th birthday tribute to Professor Robert Kajanus) gouache, ink and gold and silver paint on paper

signed A Gallen Kallela lower right gouache, ink and gold and silver paint on paper

49.5 by 27cm., 19½ by 10½in.

Onni Okkonen, A. Gallen-Kallela. Elämä ja taide, Helsinki, 1949, pp. 794-795, discussed; p. 795, illustrated

Robert Kajanus, Helsinki (a gift from the artist)
Thence by descent to the present owner

PROPERTY FROM A FINNISH PRIVATE COLLECTION
Executed in 1916, Gallen Kallela created the present work to mark the 60υth birthday of his close friend the leading Finnish conductor Robert Kajanus (b. 1856). Conceived as an illustrated manuscript and presented as a scroll in its own hollowed out and hand carved baton, the main image closely relates to the large oil painting The Fire Worshippers that Gallen-Kallela painted the same year (fig. 1).

Gallen-Kallela selected the scene from The Kalevala, the Finnish national epic that began with the creation of the world and recounts the mythological history of Finland. The particular event depicted is a gathering of men witnessing the birth of fire. With their backs to the viewer, the crowd looks on in awe and devotion at a massive pyre as the flames rise high above their heads. Lying on a boulder in the foreground is a Kantele, a Finnish lute. From beneath the stone a spring emerges. Laden with symbolism, below the gouache and Gallen-Kallela's colourful dedication to Kajanus, are the lines from the Kalevala from which the scene derives. The poem ends: 'Your spirit glows for the joy of mankind'.

Gallen-Kallela's tribute to Kajanus reflects not only their long friendship but also their shared love of their country, their respect for its folklore and their yearning to promote a strong sense of Finnish national identity. Their acquaintance dated from at least their time together as members of Young Finland in the 1890s. Formed from a gathering of the country's cultural elite, the aim of this circle of writers, artists and musicians was to bring about a spiritual renaissance in Finland. Gallen-Kallela painted the leading voices of the movement in his group portrait Symposium of 1894 (fig. 2). From left to right are Gallen-Kallela, Oskar Merikanto, Robert Kajanus and Jean Sibelius portrayed at the moment when they are about to divine the ultimate knowledge of art and creation. Twenty-two years later Gallen-Kallela's paean to Kajanus is similarly symbolic and suggests in its subject - the birth of fire - the conductor's supreme creativity.

Sold together with the artist's hand carved and painted pine scroll case.

FIG. 1: Akseli Gallen-Kallela, The Fire Worshippers, 1916, oil on canvas, City of Pori Art Collection, Pori
Digi ref: 374D08101

FIG. 2: Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Sketch for Symposium, 1894, Gösta Serlachius Art Foundation, Mänttä
Digi ref: 373D08101 (comp)

Fig. 3
The artist's hollowed out and hand carved and painted pine scroll case, sold with this lot