His father was a military judge. 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.[4] During that time, he also became one of the first political cartoonists in Finland to sign his drawings. 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 1898, he became a regular contributor to Fyren (Lighthouse), published by the Swedish Party (forerunner to the Swedish People's Party of Finland) and remained associated with it until its demise in 1922.[4] In 1907, he designed the party's election poster, which was used repeatedly and as late as 1966. During the 1920s, he was the party's representative to the Haaga Township Council.
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.[4] His wife, Sanny Hagelstam [fi], was also an artist.
