This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born and trained in Stockholm, Sweden, Gunnar Widforss became a famous painter specializing in American National Park landscapes.
He had art training in Sweden where he studied mural painting at the Institute of Technology from 1896 to 1900. From 1905 to 1908, he toured the United States, and returning to Sweden until 1921, had a popular audience for his work including European royalty.
In 1921, he settled for a time in San Francisco and did much painting along the coast of Monterey, and then, encouraged by Stephen Mather, who was Superintendent of the National Parks, spent the remaining years of his life as the "painter of the National Parks" including Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion, Mesa Verde, and the Grand Canyon. He also painted in Taos, New Mexico where painters "were said to have regarded Widforss as one of America's greatest living painters" (Widforss 527)).
Of Yosemite, he did illustrations for the 1923 book, "Songs of Yosemite", and his work was reproduced in the USA on many postcards and in magazines.
He spent his last years in his studio on the rim of the Grand Canyon, where he painted in oil and watercolor and view from every aspect. Much of his output there he traded for staples, and his paintings at the Grand Canyon were sold by the Fred Harvey Company at the El Tovar art shop.
In the 1930s, he was a WPA artist in Arizona, doing eight large watercolors of the Salt River Valley and Grand Canyon, where he died suddenly in 1934 from a heart attack while standing at the Rim. He was buried nearby.
His endeavors resulted in an exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington. In 1969, the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff held a retrospective exhibition of his work.
A quiet, modest, gracious man, who lived alone and did not prosper from his painting, Widforss copied nature closely and is remembered for a soft palette and a generally realistic style. It was only after his death that the American public grew to appreciate his work.
Source:
Peggy and Harold Samuels, "Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West"
Peter Hassrick, "Drawn to Yellowstone"
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940" (2002) |
Biography from Thomas Nygard Gallery:
| GUNNAR WIDFORSS (1879-1934)
Gunnar Widforss was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1879. He studied to be a muralist at the Institute of Technology in Stockholm from 1896-1900. In search of landscape subjects, he traveled extensively in Russia, Europe and Africa gaining popular acclaim particularly among European royalty who became important patrons of his earlier works. He remained in Sweden until 1921 by which time he had become a premier figure in the art world. While en route to the Orient in 1921, Widforss visited San Francisco and opted to remain.
In 1922 Stephen T. Mather, the director of the national parks, influenced Widforss to make painting America's national parks his specialty. He did just that, and in 1923 illustrated the book "Songs of Yosemite." Many national magazines used his paintings for their covers and his fame in America grew rapidly. He painted the canyons of the Colorado and Yellowstone, Zion and Bryce canyons, the Kaibob forest at Mesa Verde, Taos and Crater Lake but his first love was the Grand Canyon. It was his obsession with the Grand Canyon that prompted him to become an American citizen. He built a studio on the rim of the Grand Canyon and spent his last years there, studying geological formations and painting the beauty that he saw. The paintings from these last years were called "the finest to have come out of the West" and are still highly sought after today. Widforss died on the rim of his beloved canyon at the age of fifty-five and was buried there.
He was a member of the California Watercolor Society and the Scandinavian-American Artists. His works are held by many important private collections throughout the world and can be viewed at the Yosemite National Park Museum and the Museum of Northern Arizona which held a retrospective of his works in 1969.
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Biography from Altermann Galleries and Auctioneers, II:
| Gunnar Mauritz Widforss
Born: Stockholm, Sweden 1879
Died: Grand Canyon, Arizona 1934
Western landscape “painter of the national parks,” illustrator
Son of a shopkeeper, Widforss studied to be a muralist at the Institute of Technology in Stockholm from 1896 to 1900. In search of landscape subjects, he traveled to Russia, in Europe, Africa, and from 1905 to 1908 in the US where he was not successful. He was popular in Sweden on his return; his early patrons were European royalty. He remained there until 1921 when he visited California and settled there in the course of a trip to the Orient.
In 1922, Stephen T. Mather, the director of the national parks, influenced Widforss to make the parks his specialty. Widforss illustrated the book “Songs of Yosemite” in1923. National magazines used his paintings for covers. “The quiet Swede” toured the West, “the canyons of the Colorado and Yellowstone, Zion and Bryce canyons, the Kaibab forest, at Mesa Verde, Taos, Crater Lake and along the Monterey coast.” Widforss, who was a bachelor, became a citizen because of the Grand Canyon, spending his last years in a studio on the rim, studying geological formations and painting from the different aspects in oil and watercolor. The paintings were called the “finest things of the kind that have come out of the West.” When he died of a heart attack, on the rim of the canyon, he was buried there. His estate was 150 landscapes. In 1969, the Museum of Northern Arizona had a retrospective exhibition.
Resource: SAMUELS’ Encyclopedia of ARTISTS of THE AMERICAN WEST,
Peggy and Harold Samuels, 1985, Castle Publishing
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Biography from William A. Karges Fine Art - Beverly Hills:
|  A native of Sweden, Widforss studied to be a muralist at the Stockholm Institute of Technology from 1895-1900. Following his studies, Widforss earned great acclaim in his native land, and used the proceeds from his sales to European royalty to finance his wanderlust and world travels.
In 1921 Widforss moved to San Francisco, after what he’d intended to be a short visit. Travelling extensively through northern California and the American southwest, Widforss found his greatest inspiration in the National parks he found along the way. Though a great many of his works from these travels hang today in Yosemite Valley’s Ahwanee Lodge, Widforss is best known for his paintings of the Grand Canyon, where he built and maintained a studio along the rim, and where he was later buried, after his death in 1934.
Widforss’ watercolors are renowned today for their masterful control of an unforgiving medium. In his works one quickly sees the awe inspiring and accurate depictions of the vast depth and atmosphere of his favorite subject and adopted home, Arizona’s Grand Canyon. |
Biography from Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery Santa FeTucson:
| Gunnar was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1879. He studied to be a muralist in Stockholm from 1896-1900. Gunnar traveled and painted landscapes extensively in Europe and Africa gaining acclaim among European royalty.
In 1921, he arrived in San Francisco and began to paint the National Parks of the American West. Gunnar's watercolors are renowned throughout the world, particularly his adopted home at the Grand Canyon of Arizona. He established a studio on the rim of the Grand Canyon where his paintings were sold by the Fred Harvey Company at El Tovar. He died in 1934, while standing on the rim of the canyon and is buried nearby.
Gunnar was a member of the California Watercolor Society and Scandinavian American Artists. Today, his paintings are in many private collections and can be viewed at many of the National Parks. He is considered to be one of America's greatest landscape painters. |
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Gunnar Widforss is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Painters of Grand Canyon
Taos Pre 1940
Western Painters
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