This great Finnish painter and engraver of the end of the 19^th century has never been the subject of a high-scale exhibition in France. The Orsay museum thus welcomes on its picture rails several masterpieces of the artist, who exposed, in particular during the 1900 Universal exhibition in Paris, monumental frescos in the Finnish house.

Initially a realistic Painter, Akseli Gallen-Kallela draws his inspiration from the rural life before passing to neo-romanticism and symbolism. His paintings illustrating the episodes of Kalevala, the Finnish epic, contribute to his fame. This characteristic often reduced the art of Akseli Gallen-Kallela to the simple expression of a romantic nationalism. A simplistic assertion that the Orsay museum intends to minimize while allowing to see all the aspects of his art.