The Hillstrom Museum of Art has on view through its front window two oil paintings from its permanent collection. These are by famed Swedish-American artist Birger Sandzén (1871-1954), who came to America from his native Sweden in 1894, settling in Lindsborg, Kansas, where he spent his career associated with Bethany College.
Birger Sandzén (Swedish-American, 1871-1954), Mountain Stream, Eldora, Colorado, 1941, oil on board, 25 x 30 inches
In 1901, the artist seriously considered leaving Kansas for a teaching position at Gustavus Adolphus College, which he had visited at the invitation of his friend Professor Karl A. Kilander. Sandzén again visited Gustavus in 1941, at the invitation of his former pupil Lorena Daeschner Hall, who taught art at Gustavus.
One of the works on display is from late in Sandzén’s career, when his style had evolved to include the use of very thick impasto paint, applied in a manner that led to comparisons to Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), a comparison that Sandzén did not think appropriate since the Swede became familiar with Van Gogh’s work only after he had developed his own manner. This painting, titled Mountain Stream, Eldora, Colorado, dates to 1941. The artist spent a great deal of time in the summers painting in Colorado. He presented this work to the College in 1942, after a group of Gustavus students had purchased, during Sandzén’s time on campus, another painting (not on view) as a gift to the College for display in the library.
Birger Sandzén (1871-1954), Dry Creek Bed, Kansas, 1912, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches
The other work, Dry Creek Bed, Kansas, dates from relatively early in the artist’s career and relates to the region in western Kansas around the farm of his wife’s parents. It was given to the Hillstrom Museum of Art in 2000 by Museum namesake Richard L. Hillstrom.
These works will remain on display through approximately mid July. The Museum, which is closed summers and other times when classes are not in session, will reopen on September 14, 2015, with three concurrent exhibitions (on view through November 8, 2015): Grant Wood’s Lithographs: A Regionalist Vision Set in Stone; FOCUS IN/ON: B. J. O. Nordfeldt’s Two Pigeons; and George Bellows’ Sunset, Shady Valley.