The Fratricide

Akseli Gallen-Kallela had already painted subjects from the Kalevala in the 1880s, but the true power of the epic only crystallises in his decorative works produced after 1895. This new visual language for the world of the Kalevala emphasised the surface through the use of outlines and large fields of colour, in the vein of Synthetism. Gallen-Kallela also then preferred using tempera instead of oils, as in this painting.