Birger Sven Sandzen

American (1871-1954)

Born in Sweden in 1971, Sandzen studied at the Stockholm Art League under Anders Zorn, an important Swedish artist, and in Paris. He came to the United States in 1894, where he became an art professor, and later head of the art department, at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. Sandzen held these positions until retirement in 1945. While teaching, he continued to paint, draw and create lithographs, exhibiting at the Kansas City Artists Association, Society of Independent Artists, Philadelphia Watercolor Club and the Taos Society of Artists. His works are found in collections at the National Museum in Stockholm, Lund Museum, Sweden, the Library of Congress, Brooklyn Museums, Yale Art Museum, Art Museum of Santa Fe, New Mexico among others. Sandzen was best known as a landscape artist of the western mountains, painting throughout the Rockies, in Taos and Santa Fe, capturing the scenery before him in a Post-Impressionistic manner.