Sven Birger Sandzen (1871-1954)
Birger Sandzen was born in the village of Blidsberg, Sweden, in 1871. His father was the local rector, which afforded the family a comfortable and cultured lifestyle. Sandzen began to paint at the age of ten when he was sent to the College and Academy of Skara. Upon graduation, he continued his studies at Lund University in 1890. However, soon Sandzen decided to become a professional painter. He went to Stockholm where he joined a group of young artists who became the first students of The Artist’s League, an organization whose members rejected the academic manner and, in turn, introduced the modern movement in art to Sweden. Here, Sandzen adopted a method that was influenced by the French Impressionists, emphasizing light, color and visible brushwork. He traveled to Paris in 1894 to study Old Master paintings and contemporary works by the Post-Impressionists. While there, he also spent much time discussing the latest developments in art with other art students of various nations.
As the result on an invitation to join the faculty of Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, Sandzen arrived in the United States in September of 1894. Even at this early point in his career he felt it unnecessary to work in a major art center like Paris, as he believed that particular urban environment was a considerable hinderance to the development of his own painting style. Throughout the years, Sandzen had a rigorous schedule teaching languages, art history and all the school’s drawing and painting classes. He was also in great demand as a guest artist, and refused many permanent positions at other outstanding institutions because he loved the town of Lindsborg and was dedicated to Bethany College.
Sandzen was committed to creating an improved climate for art in the Midwest. He gave talks on art in high schools, universities, churches, grade schools and woman’s clubs. He sent out a great number of exhibitions, and many schools in Kansas were first exposed to art through his tireless efforts.
After teaching for fifty-two years, Sandzen retired in 1946. He was declared Professor Emeritus in art and continued as Bethany’s offical Artist in Residence. He died at his home in 1954, nearly sixty years after arriving in Kansas to begin his career as a teacher and artist.
While honored as a teacher, Sandzen gained continued notoriety for his work as an artist. In 1916, he first visited Colorado and in the 1920′s taught classes at the Broadmore Hotel in Colorado Springs. Starting in 1918, he regularly visited Taos and Santa Fe and in 1922, exhibited with the Taos Society of Artists in New York. His genre of the Rocky Mountains was executed in a bold impressionistic style calling comparison by some to Cezanne and Van Gogh. His style of painting is unusual with its thick application of bright colors as he tried to interpret the landscape of the western United States.
biographical note courtesy of the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction.
For additional information see ‘Through the Corridors on Nature’, by John Diffily, in Southwest Art, August, 1993, pages 42 to 51; and Birger Sandzen: A Retrospective, an exhibition catalogue by Howard DaLee Spencer, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas, 1985.