[From the catalogue-in-progress for “Landscapes & Livestock”, a loan exhibition for Agincourt Homecoming in the Fall of 2015]

SVENDSEN, Charles C. [1871-1959]

“Sunrise” and “Sunset after a Storm”

circa 1905

oil on wood panel/ each 4 inches by 6 inches

A life-long resident of Cincinnati, Charles Svendsen began private instruction in art at the age of six. Later he studied at the Cincinnati Art Academy and in the Academy Julian and Academy Colarossi, both in Paris. Svendsen received a bronze medal at the St Louis World’s Fair.

Though he specialized in religious themes, landscapes figured prominently in Svendsen’s oeuvre, such as this pair of cloud studies which may have been intended as sketches for larger works. His ability to convey the power of the sky, daily rising and setting of the sun, attests to Svendsen’s skill. They once hung on the walls of James and Martha Tennant’s home on Second Street NE. A part of the original GAR exhibit of 1912, they were given to their son Anson. After young Tennant’s disappearance in 1915, his family gave the paintings to the newly formed Community Collection as a memorial.