Birger Sandzén

Sven Birger Sandzén was born in Bildsberg, Sweden. He graduated from the College of Skara in 1890, then studied further at the University of Lund, the Stockholm Artist’s League, and later in Paris. A well-rounded scholar with an interest not only in art but also art history, aesthetics, and French, in 1894 he was hired as a professor at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, where he taught for fifty years. Sandzén made his first trip to Colorado in 1916, visiting the area around Colorado Springs, and returned there almost every subsequent summer. He also visited Santa Fe and Taos, becoming an associate member of the Taos Society of Artists in 1922. Sandzén was a prolific painter who also worked with printmaking, creating block prints, lithographs, and dry points. During the 1930s and early 1940s he also painted several post office murals under the Federal Art Project. Sandzén’s favorite subjects were western landscapes. In addition to his own work he amassed a personal collection of over 500 paintings and drawings by other western artists.