Gallen-Kallela, Akseli (1865-1931), Finnish painter, illustrator, and craftsman, who was a leader in the revival of traditional Finnish culture in the early 20th century. He was born Axel Gallén, a member of the Swedish-speaking minority, in Pori, Finland. After three years studying art in Helsinki, Finland, he lived in Paris from 1884 to 1889 and developed a realistic style of painting.

In 1890 he made the first of several visits to the Finnish province of Karelia (now part of Russia), where his contact with the traditions preserved there influenced his adoption of a symbolist style, in which imagery inspired by folk art was used to create allegorical paintings depicting traditional Finnish folktales. An example of his symbolist style is Waterfall at Mäntykoski (1892-1894, private collection), in which a realistically depicted waterfall is surrounded by a border of stylized flowers and overlaid by the four strings of the kantele, the Finnish harp.

During the 1890s Gallen began to apply the principles of the art nouveau style to his paintings, in addition to using them in textiles, stained glass, and frescoes. The frescoes in the central hall of the National Historical Museum in Helsinki represent scenes from the Kalevala, a collection of ancient Finnish songs, and are designed in a tapestrylike style, with heavy outlines and large areas of vivid color. In 1904 Gallen adopted the Finnish form of his name.

In 1907 he published an illustrated edition of Finnish writer Aleksis Kivi's novel Seitsemän Veljestä (The Seven Brothers, 1870) and followed it with an illustrated edition of the Kalevala in 1922. He also continued to experiment both with his painting style, exhibiting with members of Die Brücke, a group of German expressionist artists, and in other media, influencing the Finnish national style of decoration.