In the summer of 1898, an 11-year old girl named Sigrid died of tuberculosis. Her father, Fritz Arthur Jusélius, was devastated. He began construction on a mausoleum to be her last resting place, which he decided to build in a local cemetery called Käppärä in Pori, Finland.
When the structure was completed 5 years later, Fritz placed his daughter’s body in a sarcophagus on the basement floor of the mausoleum, so that it could be seen from the upper floor.
Fritz then commissioned a local painter named Akseli Gallen-Kallela to paint frescos on the interior walls of the mausoleum.
[click image for a larger view]
This tempera on canvas painting (called “Tuonelan joella” [By the River of Tuonela]) is a study Akseli Gallen-Kallela made for one of those frescos. It depicts the Dead having to cross the River of Tuonela (a translation of the Greek word ᾍδης [meaning Hades] in Finnish translations of the Bible). It is one of several studies he did for his work in the mausoleum. His actual paintings on the walls of the mausoleum were destroyed by fire and have since been repainted by another artist.
The Story of a Painting 