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Sandzén, Birger (1871 - 1954)

Currency:USD Category:Art Start Price:40,000.00 USD Estimated At:40,000.00 - 50,000.00 USD
Sandzén, Birger (1871 - 1954)
<strong>Sandzén, Birger </strong>
(1871 - 1954)

<strong>Autumn (Smoky Hill River, Kansas), 1944</strong>

oil on canvas mounted on panel
20 x 24 inches
signed lower center: <i>Birger Sandzén</i>
signed, titled and dated on verso: <i>Autumn / (Smoky Hill River, Kansas) / Birger Sandzén / Lindsborg, Kansas / 1944</i>

In the autumn of 1894, Birger Sandzén moved from Paris to Kansas to teach at Bethany College
in Lindsborg, where he became head of the art department in 1899. A native of Blidsberg, Sweden, Sandzén loved the rich land and rolling hills of his adopted home and made its landscape the subject of many paintings. Autumn was painted in 1944 and depicts his beloved Smoky Hill River as it flows west to east through Lindsborg. His work was also influenced by the summers he
spent roaming the west, sojourning for a time in New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah and occasionally teaching workshop classes during summer breaks from Bethany College.

Sandzén began his art studies at the age of ten and in 1890 graduated from the Skara School, Skara, Sweden. Afterward, until he emigrated to America, he studied under several well-known painters, including Anders Zorn and Richard Bergh. In early 1894, he also studied painting in Paris and saw firsthand the work of Impressionist, Pointillist, and Tonalist painters. His search for a personal style was led by his belief that “…you could enrich your life in your own environment if you learned how to love art and beauty.” He often donated his paintings to schools in Kansas in hope that it would encourage students to find beauty in their surroundings.

Between 1910 and 1920, Sandzen developed a style of paint application and brilliant color that made his work unique among his peers. An avid printmaker, particularly involved in woodcuts and lithographs, Sandzén helped organized the Prairie Printmakers Society during the 1930s. He won
several important honors and awards for his work, including three honorary doctorate degrees,
and in 1940 was made a Knight of the Swedish Royal Order of the North Star. He became an associate of the Taos Society of Artists in 1922. Over the years his work has been selected for more than 80 public collections and over 600 exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe.—GH


Provenance:
Private Collection, Washington
Private Collection, Arizona

Literature:
Emory Lindquist, <i>Birger Sandzen: An Illustrated Biography,</i> Lawrence, Kansas,
published for the Birger Sandzen Memorial Foundation by the University of Kansas Press, 1993