Alex Federley

Alexander Thiodolf Federley (12 July 1864, in Turku – 17 November 1932, in Helsinki) was a Finland-Swedish graphic artist who created political cartoons, posters, book illustrations and postcards.

He studied at the drawing school of the Finnish Art Society (now part of the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki), from 1885 to 1888, then attended the Académie Julian in Paris from 1890 to 1893, where he studied with Jules Joseph Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury.

[4] In the late 1880s, he was already providing illustrations to the Swedish-language satirical magazine Spets [fi] (Nib), then to the Finnish-language equivalent, Velikulta [fi] (Dear Brother), published by the Young Finnish Party.

Among his best-known book illustrations are those for the multi-volume collection of historical short-stories, Fältskärns berättelser (The Surgeon's Tales), by Zachris Topelius.

In addition to his other activities, from 1894 to 1916, he was the Chief Curator for the "Finnish Artists' Association", and he taught at a boys' preparatory vocational school from 1900 until his death, serving as the school's Director after 1909.