In the Sauna

In his biography of Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Onni Okkonen wrote in 1949: "This was a most original idea for a picture, one in which many possibilities were combined: a primitive ethnographical content, an artistically interesting nude study, and the play of reflected firelight and dusky light. All the greys and blacks and browns and flickering lights and shadows are there. Even the atmosphere of the sauna, the heat and the steam, was new, but something that invited experimentation. Gallen-Kallela has taken to the subject enthusiastically and executed his idea - with complete mastery in our opinion - with confident and bold brushstrokes which no amount of correction could improve upon."