Friday 4 November 2016

Florence Lundborg, an American printmaker in Europe.

A recent posting in the Blue Lantern, acting as a teaser, revealed this printmaker to me:


Florence Lundborg

American (1871–1949)


Noted painter, illustrator and muralist Florence Lundborg was born in San Francisco, California in 1871. She studied with Arthur Mathews (1860-1945) at San Francisco School of Design and (like Mathews) went to Paris to study with James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). See the before post: Charlotte Popert in Rome, she also was a friend of Whistler. 




Lundborg’s reputation as a muralist was confirmed when she won a bronze medal at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. Shortly after, she moved to New York where she gained recognition as an illustrator of such books as, “The Rubaiyat”, “Yosemite Legends” and “Odes and Sonnets”.

She produced many posters, influenced by art nouveau and the arts & crafts movement of the early 1900s. Lundborg cut her own woodblocks for her posters and produced seven posters, as such, for “The Lark”, a literary and humor magazine to which she also contributed articles and cover illustrations. She received commissions to paint murals in private homes in Portland, Chicago, New York and San Francisco.


And I suppose its is not unthinkable she was acquainted with the works of (Sir) Lawrence Adema-Tadema (1836-1912) who regularly visited Rome and Pompei. The spectacular use of perspective in Tadema's 1895 "Coign of Vantage" has similarities with Lundburgs illustration for "Yosemite legends" by Bertha Smith (1872-1922).






All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

Text/Biography copied and borrowed freely from:

1 comment:

  1. Not really familiar with this American printmaker. Love the bird in flight.

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