Light, Texture, and Prairie Skies: Inside Sandzén’s Kansas Legacy
When Swedish immigrant and artist Sven Birger Sandzén arrived in central Kansas in 1894, he stepped into a world of sprawling landscapes and natural beauty—but one that was rarely depicted as such in works of art at the time. Over the next decades, from his post as head art instructor at Bethany College, the Stockholm- and Paris-educated artist would gaze upon the surrounding vistas and recreate them on his canvas in a profusion of light and texture. His unique vision has influenced Kansas artists ever since.
“I think he certainly brought a lot more light into the landscape than previous artists probably had in Kansas,” says Ron Michael, director of the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery. “He was much more in tune with things like our dramatic sunsets, and the prairie landscape itself became a real fascination for him. He was a real master at painting the reflective quality of water and capturing the pinks we get in the sky here in Kansas, and the way those pinks will bounce off the landscape as well. And then he also went looking for our more dramatic rock formations that were reflective of light.”
Though sometimes referred to as “the American van Gogh,” Sandzén created art whose exact style is difficult to pin down. “He’s generally considered an early modernist artist,” says Michael. “He certainly took elements of impressionism and brought them into his work. But generally he’s considered to have developed beyond the impressionists and become a bit more expressive than they were. He’s one of those artists who’s hard to classify because he didn’t belong to any particular school. He incorporated multiple styles at the time—fauves (fauvism), post-impressionist, early modernism—and melded them into his own unique style.”
Fortunately for Kansans, that unique style was often realized in depictions of the Smoky Hills, prairie farmland and large Kansas skies. Until his death in 1954, Sandzén created beautiful images of the Kansas outdoors that were stunning and inspiring, but also entirely true to life.
Where to View
- The Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery at 401 N. First Street in Lindsborg holds the world’s largest collection of Sandzén paintings, prints, drawings and watercolors.
- The Deines Cultural Center at 820 North Main Street in Russell owns three Sandzén paintings that are usually on display.
- The Reuben Saunders Gallery at 3215 E Douglas Avenue in Wichita always has several Sandzén paintings on display. The gallery also sells his works.
In 1928, the students and faculty of Kansas State University, along with Manhattan community, raised enough funds to acquire the first two pieces to grace the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art: Still Water and Fall in the Mountains by Birger Sandzén. The museum at 701 Beach Lane in Manhattan owns twenty Sandzén paintings, and one Sandzén is always on display. Similarly, the Wichita Art Museum at 1400 Museum Blvd in Wichita has several Sandzéns in its permanent collection and one or more are generally on display. The Spencer Museum of Art at 1301 Mississippi Street in Lawrence has a single Sandzén on display in its permanent collection, as well as more than 20 others that can be viewed by appointment.
