Sven Svendsen
Svendsen, Svend Rasmussen[1]
BORN: March 21, 1864 Nittedal, Norway
DIED: September 6, 1945 Chicago[2]
MARRIED: 1890 May Isabel Newton
TRAINING
Credited Fritz Thaulow as greatest influence[3]
c.1890 Milton H. Lowell, “Buckeye School”[4]
1894 Evenings, Art Institute of Chicago
1896 Academy Delécluse, Paris[5]
1896 Paris, Edward Frederick Ertz[6]
ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT
1890s Lithography
1896 Library decoration, Milwaukee, Wisconsin[7]
Artistic tin and fine art shop, Michigan Ave., Chicago[8]
TEACHING
RESIDENCES
1864-1883 Nittedal; Christiania; Oslo, Norway
1883[9]-1908 Chicago
1908 New York City[10]
c.1908-1945 Chicago[11]
[1]A portrait photograph of the artist appears in the AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 19, p.101.
[2]“Drink and Svendsen,” Art Digest, 12/15/1930, p.5: “One reader writes: ‘It is generally known here in Chicago that drink and not poverty was responsible for his downfall.’ ” See also: “Poverty Killed Him,” Art Digest, Vol. 5, No. 4, 11/15/1930. These articles mistakenly picked up a death notice from The Palette & Chisel. The retraction was printed in “Now Then,” The Palette & Chisel, Vol. VIII, No. 2, February 1931.
[3]“Svend Svendsen And His Work,” Arts For America, Vol. 6, No. 6, February 1897, p.180. He happened upon Thaulow in his native Christiania when Svendsen was just a boy. The story related says helped Thaulow with the stability of his stool and was rewarded by being allowed to watch him paint. Svendsen tells that through the years Thaulow encouraged him while his family played a role of the opposite. He worked with him again on his journey to Norwayin 1896.
[4]“In The Art Studios,” Chicago Tribune, 1/19/1896, p.43. Also see: William Vernon, “ ‘Buckeye’ Painting Develops Artists,” Chicago American, 3/24/1902 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 15, p.123. “...the ‘buckeye’ was a picture done in oil, finished and framed in the brief space of fifteen minutes, and often containing a deal more art than fifteen months of the best efforts of some painters could have yielded.” This school of artists also included Gardner Symons, William Wendt and Frank Peyraud, all who made a considerable name for themselves.
[5]“Art Notes,” Sunday Inter Ocean, 6/7/1896, Part 4, p.31.
[6]Catalogue of the Ninth Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 10/20/1896), p.44.
[7]“Local Tone,” Arts For America, Vol. 5, No. 5, June 1896, p.202. The library was in a private residence. “In The Art Studios,” Sunday Chicago Tribune, 5/24/1896, p.35.
[8]Information courtesy of Cynthia E. Svendsen grandniece of the artist.
[9]Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” ChicagoEvening Post, 1/23/1904, p.7. Information compiled from immigration records, courtesy of Josefa and Harry Andersen, show he landed in the United States on 7/4/1883.
[10]“Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/6/1908, p.4. He put up for auction all his paintings before moving. The article states it was his intention to remain there permanently.
[11]For a time he was housed in a studio fitted for him at the Highland Park home of Dr. Karl A. Meyer north of Chicago. Op. cit., “Now Then,” The Palette & Chisel, February 1931