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Lot Essay
Akseli Gallen-Kallela and his family spent the summer of 1904 by Lake Keitele in Konginkangas, in Middle Finland. These few months turned out to be very productive and during that year the artist painted 37 paintings, some of them right on the spot by the lakeshore. Among these works the theme Lake Keitele became the summer’s main motive. The best known versions are the four almost identical lake views (with their surface crossing silvery bands) that were painted between the years 1904–1908, reflecting artist’s renewed way to handle landscape motifs. [i] One of these versions was acquired by the National Gallery in London in 2001 and is one of the most beloved works of the collection.[ii] Keitele is probably one of the best-known works by Gallen-Kallela internationally – one version was quite recently acquired by the Museum of Western Art in Japan.
Gallen-Kallela ended up in Konginkangas after travelling to Vienna, Italy, the French Riviera, Spain, and Paris earlier that year. He had also recently finished a massive fresco work for the Jusélius Mausoleum in Pori that took two years, 1901-1903. For the summer in the countryside he planned to spend time recovering from this demanding task and the malaria which he had caught in Spain. The artist’s aim was: “just simply sit down and paint details of nature, to play a schoolboy”. [iii]
In fact, I would like to cast into darkness all that I have done and start completely afresh – it remains to be seen if I have the strength for it. For once, I would like to offer the most beautiful aspect of what I have felt. I would like to become a proper artist.[iv]
Whenever facing difficult and contradictory moments in his artistic career the artist chose to settle near nature, to renew and get a new orientation. From the villa they had rented opened a wide view over the Lintula Bay with its islands, peninsulas, rye fields, towers of clouds and reflections of the late summer night’s moon. Lake Keitele inspired the artist to variations. In many works he wanted to capture the poetic, mystical feeling of the white summer night, delicate colouring of light red in the skies, reflections of clouds and wind on the lake surface.
The small painting Lake Keitele is a document from the summer when the artist wanted to start all over again by depicting nature. The captured view was reinterpreted to larger scale works, but certain elements remained: the light breezes of wind giving vivid rhythm to the lake surface, gentle light of the summer night, the opposite island and far-reaching hills on the horizon. In the foreground Gallen-Kallela drafted with few certain and quick moves a small shred of beach where he was standing.
The far looming island can be seen as one variation from the theme “island of dreams”, a familiar subject in the history of art, and known from Gallen-Kallela’s earlier works from his symbolistic period.[v] Folk traditions and the mythical dimensions of nature also stretch towards Keitele landscapes.
We are grateful to Tuija Wahlroos, Director of The Gallen-Kallela Museum, Helsinki, for her assistance in cataloguing this work.
[i] Gallen-Kallelan Museum, register of art works; Okkonen Onni 1961, s. 665. Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Elämä ja taide. Porvoo, WSOY.
[ii] A. Robbins 2015, 94. In the wake of Dream and Reality. In Hostalier Claire (edit.): Les clefs d’une passion / Keys to a Passion. Fondation Louis Vuitton. Paris, Edition Hazan.
[iii]Okkonen 1949, 661.
[iv] Draft letter 1903. Okkonen 1961, p. 633.
[v] Akseli Gallen-Kallela: Island of Dreams 1897, private collection; and 1902, Turku Art Museum.
Gallen-Kallela ended up in Konginkangas after travelling to Vienna, Italy, the French Riviera, Spain, and Paris earlier that year. He had also recently finished a massive fresco work for the Jusélius Mausoleum in Pori that took two years, 1901-1903. For the summer in the countryside he planned to spend time recovering from this demanding task and the malaria which he had caught in Spain. The artist’s aim was: “just simply sit down and paint details of nature, to play a schoolboy”. [iii]
In fact, I would like to cast into darkness all that I have done and start completely afresh – it remains to be seen if I have the strength for it. For once, I would like to offer the most beautiful aspect of what I have felt. I would like to become a proper artist.[iv]
Whenever facing difficult and contradictory moments in his artistic career the artist chose to settle near nature, to renew and get a new orientation. From the villa they had rented opened a wide view over the Lintula Bay with its islands, peninsulas, rye fields, towers of clouds and reflections of the late summer night’s moon. Lake Keitele inspired the artist to variations. In many works he wanted to capture the poetic, mystical feeling of the white summer night, delicate colouring of light red in the skies, reflections of clouds and wind on the lake surface.
The small painting Lake Keitele is a document from the summer when the artist wanted to start all over again by depicting nature. The captured view was reinterpreted to larger scale works, but certain elements remained: the light breezes of wind giving vivid rhythm to the lake surface, gentle light of the summer night, the opposite island and far-reaching hills on the horizon. In the foreground Gallen-Kallela drafted with few certain and quick moves a small shred of beach where he was standing.
The far looming island can be seen as one variation from the theme “island of dreams”, a familiar subject in the history of art, and known from Gallen-Kallela’s earlier works from his symbolistic period.[v] Folk traditions and the mythical dimensions of nature also stretch towards Keitele landscapes.
We are grateful to Tuija Wahlroos, Director of The Gallen-Kallela Museum, Helsinki, for her assistance in cataloguing this work.
[i] Gallen-Kallelan Museum, register of art works; Okkonen Onni 1961, s. 665. Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Elämä ja taide. Porvoo, WSOY.
[ii] A. Robbins 2015, 94. In the wake of Dream and Reality. In Hostalier Claire (edit.): Les clefs d’une passion / Keys to a Passion. Fondation Louis Vuitton. Paris, Edition Hazan.
[iii]Okkonen 1949, 661.
[iv] Draft letter 1903. Okkonen 1961, p. 633.
[v] Akseli Gallen-Kallela: Island of Dreams 1897, private collection; and 1902, Turku Art Museum.