
Public data from the Art Institute of Chicago. Learn more
Ad Astra
Exhibition history
Helsinki, Finland, Finska Konstnärernas 23DJE Utställning I Ateneum, Nov. 16–Dec. 10, 1913, cat. 33. Art Institute of Chicago, Special Exhibition of Paintings by Axel Gallen-Kallela, December 18, 1923–January 20, 1924, cat. 66. Rochester, New York, Memorial Art Gallery, Paintings by Axel Gallen-Kallela and Douglass Parshall, May 1924, cat. 50. Helsinki, Finland, Kalevalan Riemuvuoden Näyttely Akseli Gallen-Kallelan Muistonäyttely Kalevalan 100-Vuotisriemujuhlat, February 28–March 17, 1935, cat. 198. Espoo, Gallen-Kallelan Museo, Pysyväinen Kokoelma, 1963, cat 88. Espoo, Tarvaspään Museossa, Akseli Gallen-Kallelan 100 vuotisjuhanäyttely, April 26–September 30, 1965, cat. 42. Finland, Tampere Art Museum, Akseli & Nuori Suomi: Akseli Gallen-Kallela suomalaisuuden rakentajana, Tampereen taidemuseo, Apr. 29–Oct. 1, 2006, no cat. The Netherlands, Groninger Museum, Akseli Gallen-Kallela The Spirit of Finland, December 17, 2006–April 15, 2007, no cat. no., p. 208–209. Paris, Centre Pompidou, Traces du Sacré, May 7, 2008–Aug. 11, 2008, no cat. no. p. 92-93, 441; Munich, Haus der Kunst, Sep. 19, 2008–Jan. 11, 2009. Copenhagen, Kunstforeningen GL Strand, Akseli Gallen-Kallela: In the Wilderness, Jan. 31–Apr. 13, 2009, no cat. no., p. 102-03; Sweden, Norrköpings Konstmuseum, May 16–August 23, 2009; Stavabger, Norway, Rogaland Kunstmuseum, Sep. 3–Nov. 22, 2009. Helsinki Art Museum, Askeli Gallen-Kallela. Une passion finlandaise. Überirdisch Nordisch Askeli Gallen-Kallela Finnland Im Gesit Der Moderne, Sep. 22, 2011–Jan. 15, 2012, cat. 43; Paris, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, Feb. 7–May 6, 2012; Düsseldorf, Museum Kunstpalast, June 2, 2012–Sep. 9, 2012, cat. 43. Buffalo, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Mystic North: Burchfield, Sibelius, & Nature, Sep. 11, 2015 – Jan. 31, 2016, no cat.
Publications
Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Kallela-Kirja: iltapuhdejutelmia, 2nd ed. (Porvoo : Söderström, 1955), 224–225. Gallen-Kallela Museum, Gallen-Kallelan Tarvaspää Museo-Opas Vandring Genom Museet Museum Guide (Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö, 1962), n.p. Akseli Gallen-Kallelan julistetaide (Lahti: Lahden kaupunki, 1980), n.p. Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Sanan ja tunteen voimalla : Akseli Gallen-Kallelan kirjeitä ( A Self-Portrait in Words – The Letters of Akseli Gallen-Kallela), Juha Ilvas ed. (Helsinki: Valtion taidemuseo, 1996), 122–23, 143, 164–69. Rodolphe Rapetti, “Gallen-Kallela et le symbolism international. L’exemmple d’Ad Astra,” in L’Horizon inconnu: l’art en Finlande 1870–1920, Riitta Ojanperä ed. (Helsinki: Musées de Strasbourg, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, 1999), 49 fig. 4, 50-58. Janne Gallen-Kallela-Sirén, Axel Gallén-and the Constructed Nation: Art and Nationalism in Young Finland 1880–1900 (Ph.D. diss. New York University, 2001), 385–394, 426. Janne Gallen-Kallela-Sirén, Minä palaan jalanjäljilleni: Akseli Gallen-Kallelan elämä ja taide (Otava, 2001), 186–222. Joe Martin Hill, “Inventing Finland,” Art in America 95, 3 (March 2007), 145–53, 188. Nina Kokkinen, “The Art of Mystification: Esotericism Differentiated in the Definition of Finnish Symbolism,” in Western Esotericism: Based on Papers Read at the Symposium on Western Esotericism Held at Åbo, Finland, on 15–17 August 2007, Tore Ahlbäck ed. (Åbo, Finland: Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History, 2007), 98-111. Laura Gutman-Hanhivaara, "Gallen-Kallela, Ad Astra," in Alfred Pacquement, Jean de Loisy and Angela Lampe, Traces du sacré, exh. cat. (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 2008), 92. Lin Stafne-Pfisterer, “Edvard Munch und Axel Gallen in Berlin 1895,” in Akseli Gallen-Kallela & Berlin (Espoo, Finland: Gallen-Kallela Museum und Autoren, 2014), 54–69, 179–81. Juha-Heikki Tihinen, “Berlin und Die Darstellung der Modernen Sexualitä à la Axel Gallén & Co.,” in Akseli Gallen-Kallela & Berlin (Espoo, Finland: Gallen-Kallela Museum und Autoren, 2014), 82–93, 182–183. Minna Turtiainen, “Adolf Paul–Farmer, Musician, Author and Dramatist in Between Identities,” in Between Light & Darkness–New Perspectives in Symbolism Research, Marja Lahelma, ed. (Helsinki: The Birch & the Star: Finish perspectives on the long nineteenth century, 2014), 83. Minna Turtiainen, “Überblick Über das Material zu Axel Galléns Aufenthalt in Berlin,” Akseli Gallen-Kallela & Berlin die historischen Schichten der Gemälde (Espoo, Finland: Gallen-Kallela Museum und Autoren, 2014), 94–114, 183–185.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Akseli Gallen-Kallela (Finnish, 1865–1931)
- Date
- 1894–96
- Medium
- Oil on canvas, in artist's painted and gilded wood shrine
- Dimensions
- Canvas: 76 × 85 cm (29 15/16 × 33 7/16 in.); Framed: 129.6 × 116.9 × 14.7 cm (51 1/16 × 46 1/16 × 5 13/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- oil on canvas
- Style
- nineteenth century
- Place
- Finland
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- The Lacy Armour Fund; Old Masters Society; European Painting General Sales Proceeds, Charles H. and Mary F. Worcester, Josephine and John Louis funds, through prior gift of Mrs. Gilbert Chapman; European Painting Acquisition, Carol Rosenthal-Groeling, and Irving Lauf funds.
- Accession no.
- 2017.133
Provenance
The artist (died 1931); by descent to his widow, Mary Gallen-Kallela (died 1947), Finland, 1931; given to the family's company, Gallen-Kallelan Taide O.Y., Helsinki, Finland, 1936 [according to email correspondence from Janne Sirén, Mar. 13, 2017]; transferred to the descendants of Jorma Gallen-Kallela, the artist’s son, Finland, 1947; by descent within the family, 1987; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2017.
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00001725
Request removalPowered by Art Trackers