photo: Tampere Art Museum
Lemminkäinen and the Great Serpent, 1919–1920, tempera on canvas.
Tampere Art Museum pays tribute to the forgotten
Kalevala illustrator Joseph Alanen
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photo: Private collection
Text by Tampere Art Museum. Source: Tapio Suominen’s article in Joseph Alanen – Jugend • Kalevala • Tampere
oseph Alanen (1885–1920) was among the most accomplished artists to have drawn inspiration from the Finnish national epic, The Kalevala. The son of a Tampere-based foreman, Alanen is lesser known to wider audiences largely because his work has never been featured in a major exhibition prior to now. In 1920, Alanen, aged only 34, met an untimely death after contracting Spanish influenza, but his oeuvre is astonishingly rich in view of the brevity of his career. Tampere Art Museum now presents an extensive selection of his Kalevala-themed paintings, rounded out by his portrayals of peasant life, religious motifs, prints and drawings. Joseph Alanen.
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