Birger Sandzén (American, 1871-1954). Sea and Rocks, 1924. Oil on canvas. 36 x 48 inches (91.4 x 121.9 cm). Signed lower...

Description

Birger Sandzén (American, 1871-1954)
Sea and Rocks, 1924
Oil on canvas
36 x 48 inches (91.4 x 121.9 cm)
Signed lower left: Birger Sandzén / 1924

PROVENANCE:
Maureen Murphy Fine Arts of Montecito, California;
Private collection, acquired from the above, 1995;
By descent to the present owner.

"I feel that one should be guided in both composition and use of color by the character of the landscape... One should . . . first of all, emphasize the rhythm and then sum up the color impression in a few large strokes. In other words: A severe decorative treatment is best adapted for this purpose."
-Birger Sandzen

We wish to thank Cori Sherman North, Curator of the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery, Lindsborg, Kansas, for her invaluable cataloguing assistance. This painting is recorded as #2305 in the Sandzén card catalogue of the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery.

Ms. North writes about this work in a 2023 email to Heritage auctions: "In February 1924, the Sandzéns went home to Sweden for the last time, stopping first in New York City to tour his second exhibition at Babcock Galleries before spending several months visiting family over there. After he returned to Kansas in the spring, the artist produced many Swedish landscapes and even a few Norway views. Sandzén met the famous Swedish sculptor Carl Milles at a dinner in Stockholm, and the two artists became fast friends, corresponding for decades and getting together when Milles was a Cranbook artist-in-residence in the 1930s."


More information about Birger Sandzén. See also: Sandzen, Birger, Sandzen, Birger, Sandzén, Sven Birger Artist.



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