Svend Rasmussen Svendsen (American 1864 - 1945) Winter Scene

In 1901, art critic James William Patterson wrote of Svendsen: “Svendsen’s snow pictures are popular because so true to fact, so brilliant in color and so poetical in story.” Patterson felt that there was a mild flavor of French landscape painter Jean Charles Cazin in Svendsen’s work. Other critics admired a “tonality” in his works, a concept they had a hard time grasping, but which they greatly admired.

Svendsen was born in Nittedal, Norway and left school at the age of twelve to go to work. As a youth, a meeting with Norwegian impressionist landscape painter Frits Thaulow, instilled in him an ambition to be an artist. In 1881, he immigrated to Chicago, Illinois where was employed as a lithographic artist.

Although largely self-taught, in the 1890s, he traveled to Paris to study with Edward Frederick Ertz at the Académie Delecluse and began exhibiting at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1895. He would also return to Norway several times to paint. Thaulow remained a lasting influence on his art, as Svendsen, like Thaulow, is also known for his winter scenes. He died in Chicago in 1945.

Svendsen exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago (1895-1909, 1915, 1920); Nashville Exposition (1897, honorable mention); W. Scott Thurber Galleries (Chicago, between 1897 and 1903); National Academy of Design (New York, 1902); Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1989-1900, 1902); St. Louis Exposition (1904, bronze medal); Norske Klub (Chicago, 1920); Norse-American Centennial Art Exhibition (Minnesota State Fair, 1925) and Milch Galleries (New York, 1920s).

High auction record for this artist: $5,000.