Brooklyn Museum - Creek at Moonrise - Sven Birger Sandzén - overall

Sven Birger Sandzén (February 5, 1871 – June 22, 1954), known more commonly as Birger Sandzén, was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

painter best known for his landscapes. He produced most of his work while working as an art professor at Bethany College,

Lindsborg, Kansas Lindsborg is a city in McPherson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,776. Lindsborg is known for its large Swedish, other Nordic and Scandinavian Americans ( Nordic- Scandinavian), and Germ ...

Background

Sandzén was born in Blidsberg, Ulricehamn Municipality,

Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County ( sv, Västra Götalands län) is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1 ...

, Sweden. His parents were Johan Petter Sandzén and Clara Carolina Elisabeth Sylvén. His father was a parish priest and his mother an accomplished watercolorist. A protégé of

Anders Zorn Anders Leonard Zorn (18 February 1860 – 22 August 1920) was a Swedish painter. He attained international success as a painter, sculptor, and etching artist. Among Zorn's portrait subjects include King Oscar II of Sweden and three American ...

, Sandzén showed an interest in art from an early age, and at the age of 10 joined

Skara Skara is a locality and the seat of Skara Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 18,580 inhabitants in 2013. Despite its small size, it is one of the oldest cities in Sweden, and has a long educational and ecclesiastical history. O ...

Cathedral School Cathedral schools began in the Early Middle Ages as centers of advanced education, some of them ultimately evolving into medieval universities. Throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, they were complemented by the monastic schools. Some of these ...

(''Katedralskolan''), to study art under the tutelage of Olof Erlandsson (1845-1916), a graduate of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Arts The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts ( sv, Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna), commonly called the Royal Academy, is located in Stockholm, Sweden. An independent organization that promotes the development of painting, sculpture, archite ...

. After graduating in 1890, Sandzén studied for a short time at the

University of Lund , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion Stockholm. It was his intention to enroll at the

. However, the waiting list proved too long for him. Instead, he sought out and joined a group of young artists who were studying under

Richard Bergh Sven Richard Bergh (28 December 1858 – 29 January 1919) was a Swedish painter, art critic and museum manager. Despite many years in France, he remained unattracted to Impressionism, preferring instead the Naturalism of painters such as Jule ...

and Per Hasselberg. This group would later be known as the Artists' Association (''

Konstnärsförbundet Konstnärsförbundet ('the Artists' Association') was an association of Swedish artists founded in 1886 in opposition to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. Background and members The association demanded reforms in the Academy's organizat ...

''). One of his fellow students and ultimately a good friend, was

Carl Lotave Carl Lotave (February 29, 1872 – December 27, 1924) was a painter of portraits, illustrator, and sculptor. He painted portraits of notable leaders of World War I and is best known for his two portraits of President Abraham Lincoln. Lotave was an ...

. At the end of his studies, Zorn and Bergh recommended that Sandzén complete his painting studies in Paris. In 1894, Sandzén left Stockholm to study under

Edmond Aman-Jean Edmond Aman-Jean (13 January 1858, Chevry-Cossigny – 25 January 1936, Paris) was a French symbolist painter, who co-founded the Salon des Tuileries in 1923. Life His father was the owner and operator of an industrial lime kiln. He had h ...

who introduced Sandzén to pointillism. Aman-Jean was closely associated with Ernest Laurent and

Georges Seurat Georges Pierre Seurat ( , , ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough su ...

in promoting

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

. Sandzén's early work displays these influences, along with a tonalist approach.

Career

Later in 1894, Sandzén accepted a teaching post from

Carl Aaron Swensson Carl Aaron Swensson (June 25, 1857 – February 16, 1904) was an American Lutheran minister and founder and President of Bethany College. Background Carl Aaron Swensson was born at Chandler's Valley near Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania. He was a son ...

, President of Bethany College. He moved to

which would be his home for the rest of his life. He remained on the faculty for fifty-two years, teaching various languages as well as art in his first year at Bethany. Sandzén would go on to become the head of art at the college until his retirement in 1946. He recommended that his friend

fill an open position at Bethany and with Lotave and N.G. Malm, they started the first exhibition of Swedish-American art. It became the annual Midwest Art Exhibition. Sandzén was taken with the Smoky Hill River Valley area of central Kansas, which provided much of the subject matter for his paintings. Many of his paintings feature the great landscapes of the

American Southwest The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado ...

. Sandzén painted many landscape scenes, including depictions of the Rocky Mountain National Park and

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowst ...

, both favorite venues for his work. He also spent considerable time painting landscapes within Kansas. According to curator Bill North, he frequently painted landscapes from

Graham County, Kansas Graham County (county code GH) is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 2,415. Its county seat and most populous city is Hill City. The county is home to Nicodemus, founded 1877, which ...

, where his wife's parents moved in 1906. Although most of his works are in oil, Sandzén was also a talented printmaker and watercolorist Sandzén was highly prolific producing at least 2,890 oil paintings as well as hundreds of different prints and watercolors and drawings. He adopted a thick, textural, impasto style of painting, with the use of strong colourful brushstrokes. His bold use of stroke and color has been described variously as

post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

, expressionism and fauvism. His woodcuts and

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...

s were to have a lasting effect on artists to come. His artwork has been compared to

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

and

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...

Personal life

In 1897, Sandzén met Alfrida Leksell, a Bethany College piano student from McPherson, Kansas. They married in 1900 and had one child, Margarita Elizabeth Greenough (1909–1993). He died during 1954 in Lindsborg, Kansas.

Legacy

In 1940, Sandzén was given recognition for promoting cultural relations between the United States and Sweden. He was awarded both the

Order of Vasa The Royal Order of Vasa () is a Swedish order of chivalry, awarded to citizens of Sweden for service to state and society especially in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce. It was instituted on 29 May 1772 by King Gustav III. It was u ...

as well as the

Order of the North Star The Royal Order of the Polar Star (Swedish: ''Kungliga Nordstjärneorden'') is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Sword and the Order of the Seraphim. The Order of the ...

by the Swedish Government. He also received honorary doctorates from various institutions, including the Midland Lutheran College, the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

, and the Kansas State University. As a tribute to Sandzén's contribution to Bethany College, the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery was dedicated on the college campus in 1957. It houses paintings and archives related to Sandzén and a number of his contemporaries.''Geology and the Art of Birger Sandzén'' (Gustavus Adolphus College)
/ref> Also, as part of the regional interest two of Sandzen's paintings are held by the Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University. The paintings ''Still Water'' and ''Fall in the Mountains'' were two of the first acquisitions by the museum. There are also two oil paintings by Birger Sandzen in the Western Art Museum, Anschutz Collection in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Galleries and public collections

* Steven Stern Fine Arts (California) * William A. Karges Fine Art * George Stern Fine Arts (California) * David Dee Fine Arts (Utah) * Lawrence Beebe Fine Art (California) * Roughton Galleries (Texas) * Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery * Beach Museum of Art * Ponca City Municipal Library, Ponca City, Oklahoma (http://www.poncacityok.gov/232/Matzene-Art-Collection) * Mark Arts, Wichita, Kansas

References

Works cited

External links

*
Birger Sandzén Memorial GallerySandzén: Ecstasy of Color
Trailer {{DEFAULTSORT:Sandzen, Birger 1871 births 1954 deaths 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters American male painters Artists from Kansas Bethany College (Kansas) Lund University alumni Order of the Polar Star People from Ulricehamn Municipality Post-impressionist painters Recipients of the Order of Vasa Swedish emigrants to the United States Taos Society of Artists 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists