By ERIC C. RODENBERG
Antiqueweek Associate Editor SANTA FE, N.M. — Perhaps Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper editor Walter Allen White summed it up best:
“The art of Birger Sandzen is beautifully adapted to the interpretation of the American Rocky Mountains,” the longtime editor of the Emporia Gazette (Kansas) wrote. “Our Rockies are stark, strong, ruthless things … Birger Sandzen knows the mood of nature. He goes to it unafraid.
“And he comes back triumphant, capturing it, subduing it, translating it into human terms. He grapples with its joy. He translates its terror and dread without compromise, without understatement.”
Nicknamed the “American Van Gogh,” the Swedish born Sandzen (1871-1954) found both power and solace in the Rocky Mountains. He painted throughout the Estes Park area of Colorado. Another favorite was Yellowstone Park.
A prolific painter, by 1930, he had amassed a personal collection of more than 500 Western paintings and drawings. He traveled south to Santa Fe and Taos, where The Taos Society of Artists conferred on him an association membership in 1922.
But, home was Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., founded in 1881 by Swedish Lutheran immigrants. He settled there in 1893, teaching art at Bethany for nearly 50 years. Although a dedicated artist, he was also a committed teacher.
“It was in 1922 that Birger Sandzen’s star reached its zenith,” according to Southwest Art (April 1983). “The American-Scandinavian Foundation sponsored a large exhibition of his work at the Babcock Galleries in New York. Sandzen received enthusiastic critical reviews …the Foundation was ecstatic and wired the artist to come to New York. They offered to send a plane. Sandzen’s reply was, ‘I am sorry. I have classes and cannot leave.’”
On Aug. 13-14, Manitou Galleries will offer for sale 11 important paintings by Sandzen. The paintings, created between 1910 and 1940, illustrate the evolution of the artist’s distinctive style. Two of his 1910 paintings up for auction show his early versatility; one being a traditional and fairly simple landscape, the other a rare pointillist piece. His later pieces up for auction show the maturity of his work in the masterful Summertime in the Mountains (1923) and Lake in the Rockies (1927). The later pieces, themselves, are expected to sell for $300,000-$400,000 and $200,000-$300,000 respectively.
“But, you never know,” said Charla Nelson, an owner of Manitou Galleries. “Lake in the Rockies is a spectacular painting … it could surprise us.”
She said that Summertime in the Mountains, at a commanding size of 60 by 80in, will be the largest paintings to ever sell at auction.
The 11 pieces to be sold by Manitou were selected by the Bethany College Art Committee, then deaccessioned to be sold to support the general scholarship fund of the college.
“They were strictly donated for their eventual sale, to benefit scholarships” Nelson said. Student scholarships at Bethany total more than $6 million per year.
The Sandzen collection will be among some 600 lots offered by Manitou’s seventh annual “Auction in Santa Fe.”
Charla’s husband, Bob Nelson, attended Bethany College in the early 1960s. Fifty years later, he still claims, “it is because of that first impression that I am in the art business today.”
Bob ultimately transferred to the University of Wyoming, where he earned a law degree and practiced for 25 years. He opened Manitou Galleries in Cheyenne, Wyo., in 1975. From there, he expanded to Santa Fe in 2000, ultimately opening two gallery locations and two jewelry stores.
The Nelsons also collect works by Sandzen, owning at least 60 works by the artist, including oils, watercolors, wood-cuts, lino cuts, block prints and even a crayon drawing.
The Nelsons said they are already receiving calls from interior decorators, collectors and dealers throughout the country.
“These are the most important pieces of Sandzen’s work to ever be offered in one place at one time,” Bob Nelson said.
For more information, call 307-635-0019 or visit www.auctioninsantafe.com |
