A Summer Meadow

Details

Birger Sandzen (1871-1954)
A Summer Meadow
signed with initials and dated 'BS/92' (lower right)--signed 'Birger Sandzen' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
19¾ x 14 in. (50.2 x 35.6 cm.)

Provenance

Private collection, Sweden.
Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco, California, 10 December 2003, lot 6069.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Exhibited

Orebro, Sweden, Orebro Castle, Swedish Artists from America, June 15-August 19, 2001.

Lot Essay

Birger Sandzen's early years in Stockholm were critical to the development of the artist's style as he immersed himself in studying the various galleries of portraits and landscapes at the National Museum. Before he traveled to the West and Southwest of the United States in 1899, Sandzen traveled throughout the Swedish countryside completing works en plein air that reveal the artist's already sophisticated technique of beautifully capturing his natural surroundings. The present work is an exceptional early example from Sandzen's prolific career conceived in a unique and considerably modern composition, with a high horizon line and blossoms that take on an almost abstract patterning against the expanse of a meadow.

A letter from The Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery dated 28 January 2004 accompanies this lot.