Nils Anton Pearson [1892-1967]
Swedish-American Modernist painter, sculptor and artist
In the still of the night, Fort Jackson, 1914.
Oil on board
12 x 9 inches [unframed] | ? x ? inches [framed]
Signed and titled on back.

TITLES:
2023 In the still of the night, Fort Jackson

CONDITION:
Original untouched condition in period frame.

DESCRIPTION:
Nils Anton Pearson [1892-1967] work is extremely rare due to the artist’s nomadic low tech lifestyle traveling by horse and wagon.  Pearson moved to the US in 1912 and traveled extensively throughout the Midwest painting initially and then focusing on sculpting.  This is an extremely early example of the artist work from 1914.

PROVENANCE:
2023 ( David Smernoff, New Haven, CT & New York, NY ) ;
after 1914 Private collection of [unknown] ;
1914 Nils Anton Pearson [1892-1967], the artist .

EXHIBITION:
– [none known] ;

REFERENCES:
– [none known] ;

BIOGRAPHY:
Nils Anton Pearson (1892-1967) was a Swedish-American sculptor known primarily for his wood and stone carvings. He was born on May 23, 1892 in Lund, Sweden and died in March 1967 in Lindsborg, Kansas, United States. Pearson studied at the Technical School in Lund before immigrating to the United States in 1912. He then traveled extensively throughout the American Midwest, journeying through seven states by horse and wagon, floating down the Mississippi River in a houseboat, and hiking through Arkansas and Missouri. En route to the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, Pearson stopped in Lindsborg, Kansas, where he met the artist Birger Sandzén. Pearson decided to stay in Lindsborg to study painting with Sandzén, eventually earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Bethany College.

Pearson established a studio in Lindsborg and continued creating woodcarvings, working with whatever materials were available. His subjects were often people he knew personally or groups in familiar settings. He was a member of the Smoky Hill Art Club and exhibited works in the Midwestern Artists’ Exhibition in 1924 and from 1935-1939. Pearson’s works are held in the collections of the Sandzén Memorial Art Gallery, the Dawdy Collection, the Wichita Art Association, the Newlin Collection, the Sain Collection, the Reinbach Collection, Associated Arts of Kansas, the American Association of University Women, and the Midwestern Artists’ Exhibition.