Birger Sandzén (Swedish/American, 1871-1954)
Creek at Twilight, 1927
Oil on canvas
48 x 60 inches (121.9 x 152.4 cm)
Signed lower right: Birger Sandzen
Signed, dated and inscribed on the stretcher: Creek at Twilight / Wild Horse Creek, Graham Co., Kansas, 1927

PROPERTY OF THE WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION, SOLD TO BENEFIT THE CONTINUING EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP FUND

PROVENANCE:
The artist;
Washington High School, Class of 1927, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, acquired from the above 1927;
Gift to the present owner from the above.

Creek at Twilight from 1927 is a rare, large-scale tour de force of Birger Sandzén's oeuvre. Utilizing his hallmark Fauvist palette and strong, energized brushwork in this monumental work, the artist dazzles his viewer. Appearing at auction directly from the Washington High School Alumni Scholarship Foundation, Sandzén's masterwork firmly ranks the artist among the finest of America's plein air painters.

An associate member of the Taos Society of Artists, Sandzén was a Swedish-born artist famous for his vibrant landscape paintings of the American Southwest. The son of a minister, Sandzén displayed an early artistic talent, which was encouraged and cultivated by his parents. His formal artistic training was completed in Europe, and in 1894 he immigrated to America, where he had accepted a teaching position at Bethany College. For more than 52 years, Sandzén was a professor of art history, drawing, and painting in the small Kansas town of Lindsborg. He was a staunch advocate of the arts and worked within his community to organize art clubs, exhibitions, and lectures. Throughout his career, however, Sandzén's own painting was relegated to late-night sessions until 1945, when he retired from teaching in order to devote himself to painting full time.

Sandzén's early artistic style was heavily influenced by Tonalism and Scandinavian Romanticism, but once he began spending his summers in the Southwest, his palette exploded with color. He began visiting Taos in the summer of 1918 at the height of the art colony. Four years later, Sandzén was elected an associate member of the Taos Society of Artists. That same year, 1922, he exhibited with the group in New York, where he also had a one-man show at the Babcock Gallery.

In 1920, an art critic from the Washington Star offered the following commentary on Birger Sandzén's work:

"The colors used are rather vivid but they are superb and the work has the bigness of the country represented.... Furthermore, the colors, while vivid, are perfectly attuned and their values are nicely related. The effects, while startling, are intensely significant and the illusion of light and atmosphere is admirably set forth. The kind of simplification that one finds in these canvases is what the modernists have apparently sought but have, to the present time, secured only clumsily. It is the simplification of nature with a broad vision. It is founded on tradition and it has the basic qualities common with all great art.... It is modern. It is contemporary. It is essentially American. It breathes the spirit of the West and it opens new vision. Here is a painter who is worth remembering and whose experimentation must be regarded with utmost respect" (as quoted in E. Lindquist, Birger Sandzén: An Illustrated Biography, Lawrence, Kansas, 1993, p. 81).

The 1927 graduating class of the Washington High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, purchased Creek at Twilight directly from the trunk of the artist's car, the very year in which the work was painted. Subsequently, this masterwork has remained in the school's possession to this day.

For several decades, Creek at Twilight hung in the institution's basement for safekeeping, only to be newly rediscovered. With its textural impasto and strong, colorful brushwork reminiscent of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cézanne, Creek at Twilight embodies the accolades showered upon Sandzén in 1920, and is as relevant and impressive today as it was when painted in 1927.

Please note that proceeds from the sale of Creek at Twilight will be invested in a fund, the returns of which will be used to fund college scholarships for needy students.

The present work is being sold unframed. It has been exhibited in a carved and painted frame on loan from Eli Wilner and Company. Please inquire with the department for details




Alternate Artist Spellings: "Birger Sandzén", "Sandzen, Birger", "Sandzén, Birger", "Sandzen, Sven Birger", "Sandzén, Sven Birger", "Sven Birger Sandzen"

The work is unlined and untouched. The surface appears very slightly dirty. There appears to be mild surface cracking commensurate with age, centrally located. There appears to be no evidence of inpainting under UV examination.

Unframed