Gustaf Mannerheim and staff pose for portraits

[Finnish Civil War]. [Photograph album - Photo portraits of Commander in Chief Mannerheim's General Staff during the Finnish Civil War].

€ 18,000.00

A commemorative photograph album from the year of the Finnish Civil War and a very thorough tour of the top brass on the side of the Whites, comprising photo portraits of Commander-in-Chief and Regent of Finland Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (1867-1951) and thirty-six men on his General Staff or otherwise under his employ or command.

The first photo portrait is of Mannerheim himself, signed in ink and dated, "G. Mannerheim. 1918". Of the unsigned portraits, the most recognizable is the photograph of internationally famous Finnish painter Aksel Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931), best known for his illustration of the Kalevala, today the Finnish national myth. However, Gallen-Kallela was also involved in the Civil War, where he and his son both joined the side of the Whites; upon hearing of this, Mannerheim personally invited Gallen-Kallela onto his wartime staff.

Nine other portraits are signed by their sitters, including: Jaeger Colonel Per Wilhelm Zilliacus (1892-1982), artillery inspector Adolf Gustaf von Rehausen (1861-1935), who dates his 1918, Major General Otto Walter Holmberg (1868-1942), head of topography Colonel Claës Richard Stenius (1863-1939), and Major Frans Michael Gripenberg (1882-1941).

Mannerheim, the focus of the collection, looms large in Finnish national memory. He was Regent of Finland in 1918/19, commander-in-chief of the Finnish Defence Force during World War II, and the sixth president of Finland, serving from 1944 until 1946. Most of the men photographed did not see front line fighting during the Civil War (the exception being Zilliacus, who briefly became a member of Mannerheim's staff as the consequence of a combat injury). Almost all were major businessmen or landowners: the general on duty, Holmberg, was the managing director of the Nuutajärvi glass factory from 1907 to 1942; another was the son of Anders Joachim Kurtén (1836-99), a prominent figure in Vaasa, who founded several companies alongside a career in banking and involvement in politics. Gripenberg, one of the youngest men photographed, was married to Marshal Mannerheim's half-sister Olga Sofia Marguérite Mannerheim (1882-1970).

The album, with a stylized and crowned "M" on its cover, may have been presented to Mannerheim himself or simply made by or for one of the members of the General Staff depicted herein. Certainly, it provides a snapshot of this stage of Mannerheim's career.

Light exterior wear, one leaf with a photograph evidently missing. A few photos lightly sunned or edgeworn, generally quite well preserved.