This is a large linocut by noted American artist Birger Sandzen. The linocut is titled 'Timberline' and dates from 1925. It depicts a very familiar Sandzen subject--a tree reflected in water. The location of this scene is Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Sandzen uses an interesting compositional approach. while the central focus of the image is the gnarled tree extending out over the water, the background consists of mountains with a tall peak (possibly Long's Peak, a favorite subject of artists in the park). As a result the depth of the composition is very compressed adding a lot of drama and energy. It is signed in pencil lower left and a monogram is present in the block lower right. The title is given in pencil lower right. This is an excellent example of Sandzen's graphic work.

The image size is given above. The sheet size is 15 x 12 inches. There is a missing corner of the lower left part of the sheet (see photo) well away from the image. The is hinge mounted on archival mat board total size 18.5 x 16.25 inches. The piece is in excellent condition aside from the missing corner. It is ready for framing.
The piece was consigned to the Sandzen Museum in Lindsborg, Kansas and was purchased there. This establishes the authenticity of the piece, as the Sandzen Museum is the definitive repository of his works and related materials. In addition to authentication, the Museum works with a professional paper conservator to restore the prints to museum quality. The are then mounted using archival materials. This means that the art is in as close to original condition as can be achieved.

Birger Sandzen (1871-1954)

Born in Bildsberg, Sweden, Sven Sandzen had a long and distinguished career as an art professor at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas and as an impressionist landscape painter. His work evolved from pointillism to a very personal style of bold color and with masses of paint, akin to that of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne. His early work was Tonalist in style in the manner of Scandinavian Romanticism, but after he began taking trips to Colorado, where he created many paintings of the Rocky Mountains, his work became much more Expressionist and Fauve or brightly colored. He was the son of a Lutheran minister and received his art education in Europe, graduating in 1890 from the College of Skara in Sweden and then taking further study at the University of Lund. He was the pupil of Anders Zorn and studied painting at the Artists League of Stockholm and then with Aman-Jean in Paris. In 1894, he emigrated to Kansas where until 1945 he was professor at Bethany College and from then until his death, professor emeritus. Not only did he paint in the West including Yellowstone National Park in 1930, he amassed a personal collection of over 500 western paintings and drawings. At Bethany College, he organized the first exhibition of Swedish-American art held at that Swedish institution. The exhibit included paintings by himself and his colleagues. He was also active in the Swedish-American Society in Chicago. In 1916, he first went to Colorado and in the mid 1920s, taught some classes at the Broadmoor Hotel. He also taught at Denver College and at Utah State College. From 1918, he became a regular visitor to Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, and in 1922, exhibited with the Taos Society of Artists in New York. During the Depression, he was a W.P.A. artist and was the author of a book titled With Brush and Pencil. He was also a founding member of the Prairie Printmakers Society. In the 1930s, a handful of intaglio and block print artists from Wichita, Lawrence and El Dorado, Kansas met with Sandzen in his studio and under his direction created one of America's most successful print societies (Fred McCraw, Art Writer of Kansas City). Credit: Peggy and Harold Samuels, Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West.