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GUNNAR WIDFORSS Biography |
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Painter. Born in Stockholm, Sweden on October 21, 1879. Widforss studied to be a muralist at the Institute of Technology in Stockholm from 1895-1900. While in his native land, he became well known with several sales to European royalty. A world traveler, on his way back to the Orient in 1921 he visited San Francisco and opted to remain. He painted along the Monterey coast for a while before deciding to specialize in scenery of the national parks. The Bryce, Zion, and Yellowstone canyons as well as Yosemite and Crater Lake inspired his works. Widforss illustrated the book, Song of Yosemite (1923); his work was widely reproduced on postcards and covers of national magazines. He is best known for his landscapes of the Grand Canyon where he maintained a studio on the rim and was later buried after his death there on November 30, 1934. Primarily a watercolorist, he was equally facile with oil.
Member: California Watercolor Society. Exhibited: Museum of Northern Arizona, 1969 (retrospective). Awards: first prize, California Watercolor Society, 1928; third prize, California State Fair, 1930. Works Held: Yosemite National Park Museum; National Museum of American Art; Museum of Northern Arizona. |
