After his father's death in 1879, Gallen-Kallela attended drawing classes at the Finnish Art Society (1881–1884) and studied privately under Adolf von Becker.

At the time Gallen-Kallela also designed a grand cabin called Kalela for his family far from everything on the shore of Lake Ruovesi.

[12][13] In March 1895, his trip was ended when he received a telegram that his daughter Impi Marjatta had died from diphtheria, which would prove to be a turning point in his work.

From 1896 to 1899, he painted what are considered his most famous works: The Defense of the Sampo, Lemminkäinen's Mother, Joukahainen's Revenge and Kullervo's Curse.

[15] In 1901, he was commissioned to paint the fresco, Kullervo Sets Off for War, for the concert hall of the Helsinki Student's Union.

[1] His idea for a 700-page Great Kalevala [fi] was fully formed in 1909 with a publication of his plan in the Valvoja magazine.

However the city and the new direction art was being taken didn't feel as hospitable as he had hoped, and so in May 1909 they moved much further away to Nairobi in Kenya.

[1] Between 1911 and 1913, he designed and built a studio and house for his family at Tarvaspää, approximately 10 km northwest of the centre of Helsinki.

In 1918, Gallen-Kallela and his son Jorma took part in the fighting at the front of the Finnish Civil War.

When the regent, General Mannerheim, heard about that, he invited Gallen-Kallela to design the flags, official decorations and uniforms for the newlyindependent Finland.

In 1930, he made an agreement to paint a gigantic fresco for the bank Kansallis-Osake-Pankki, but on 7 March 1931, while returning from a lecture in Copenhagen, he suddenly died of pneumonia in Stockholm.