Svend Rasmussen Svendsen 1864 - 1945

"Winter Firelight"

"Path in the Snow"

Svend Rasmussen Svendsen was born in Nittedal, Norway, in 1864, and soon after his birth, the family moved to Oslo. He left school in Norway at age 12 to work. At 17, he emigrated to the United States, settling in Chicago. He later married May Isabel Newton, and they had five children. He died in Chicago in 1945.

He studied with Fritz Thaulow in Norway, and later with Edward F. Ertz at the Academie Delecluse in Paris in 1896.

Svendsen had frequent exhibits at the Chicago Art Institute between 1895 and 1925. He won various prizes there and at the Nashville Exposition in 1897 and St. Louis Exposition of 1904, among numerous exhibitions and recognitions. He has been included in exhibits of prominent Scandinavian-American artists in the United States and Norway, and his works feature in major art auctions on a regular basis.

Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery is pleased to add Svend Svendsen to our list of other notable Norwegian / American artists; Nels Hagerup, Paul Lauritz, and Carl Henrik Jonnevold.

Sources: Luther College (finearts.luther.edu); Askart; Strand, A.E., A History of the Norwegians of Illinois; Gerdts, William H., The Friedman Collection: Artists of Chicago.