Birger Sandzйn (American, 1871-1954)

Mountain Landscape, 1917-1918

Oil on canvas, 16 1/8 x 24 1/8 in.

Wichita Art Museum, Gift of Sarah Jane Griffith Stevens

1991.14

            In his impressive three-volume book on the outstanding painters of every state in the U.S. scholar William H. Gerdts cited Birger Sandzйn and William Alexander Griffith as two of the most notable painters in Kansas in the early 20^th century. Both Griffith, who taught at the University of Kansas, and the Swedish-born Sandzйn who taught at Bethany College, Lindsborg, were influenced by the French Impressionist style.

            The Wichita Art Museum was especially pleased to receive this fine Sandzйn landscape, which documented, among other things, the friendship of two forward-looking Kansas artists. The painting was a gift to the Museum from Ms. Sarah Jane Griffith Stevens, daughter of the painter W. A. Griffith. Ms. Stevens explained that her family acquired this work when Sandzйn and her father exchanged paintings so that each could collect the work of an admired fellow artist. She believes that the subject of this particular painting was probably Pike’s Peak, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

            Gerdts described Sandzйn as perhaps the most original painter in Kansas history and one whose style evolved from Romanticism to Impressionism, Pointillism, and finally to an expressionistic style characterized by heavily textured paints of brilliant decorative color. This particular painting suggests a close affinity with the light colors and smaller brushstrokes of Impressionism.