Inside Sandzen Summer 2009

INSIDE SANDZÉN
This feature, highlighting a discovery relating to Sandzén from the archives, will be periodically updated on the website and is planned for each issue of Gallery Notes.

The Graham County Farm and Art

In the summer of 1908 the Sandzéns traveled in the United States, first in early July to the Graham County farm of Alfrida Sandzén's parents, Eric and Charlotte Leksell, then in late July to Colorado for two weeks, with the return to Lindsborg before September also via the farm. Mode of travel must have been the train.

Birger Sandzén describes the farm and his work there as an artist in the following edited excerpts from the letter written to his mother Clara in Sweden and in Swedish, dated July 12, 1908. The translator is unknown.

Dear little Mother!

. . . .[A] week ago [we arrived again] at Father-in-law's and Mother-in-law's on the farm. . . . [Their ] house is small (only two quite large rooms) but light and comfortable and provided with a rather large porch and roomy basement.

It lies on a plateau that on three sides is bordered by a glen and a brook in it. A glen with running water in it here is called a creek [here he gives the pronunciation in Swedish phonetics to make the word rhyme with "peak"]. . . . Our creek is said to be about three Swedish miles long [approximately 18 miles] and is called "Wild Horse Creek". . . .

I paint and draw quite industriously during the days. I do quite many of my outdoor studies in lead pencil and charcoal or water colors, because it is right heavy to carry a paint case and canvas in the heat. Even if one has a light painter's stool, parasol and easel it still becomes a heavy package when it is warm. The painter's parasol is entirely indispensable (even if one only draws pencil sketches) because the constant sunshine strains the eyes. . . .

The scenery out here is featureless but grandiose with hills and prairies as far as the eye can see. Here and there the uniform and desolate landscape is broken by a picturesque canyon [here he provides the pronunciation of "canyon" in Swedish phonetics]. . . with white sandstone walls and a small winding stream. It is especially in these "canyons" that I find my motif. . . .

Mother's Birger

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Much more concerning Sandzén as lecturer and as "warm friend and advisor" to the Salina (Kansas) Art Association is available in the Summer 2009 Gallery Notes, distributed to all members.