View from Eläintarha at Sunset

View from Eläintarha at Sunset (1886) by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, now in the collection of Ateneum, exploits the dramatic lighting conditions of a specific time of day, a subject that became increasingly central to Impressionist and Tonalist painters' investigation of atmospheric light. Akseli Gallen-Kallela was Finland's greatest national artist, whose illustrations of the Finnish epic Kalevala became central to Finnish cultural identity and the project of national self-definition in the period leading to independence. Trained in Helsinki and Paris, he moved from French naturalism toward a bold Symbolist style perfectly suited to his mythological subjects.

Gallen-Kallela's mature style features strong, simplified outlines and flat areas of intense color reflecting both Symbolist influence and Art Nouveau decorative sensibility. His Finnish forest landscapes are rendered with almost iconic directness — dark pines, granite-gray lakes.