Carl Johan Trygg was born in 1887 in Skagershult, Närke, Örebro county, Sweden.
He began carving wooden figures of various common people in the Scandinavian flat-plane style of woodcarving.
A year later she gave birth to their son Carl Olaf Trygg.
Carl Johan and his family eventually settled in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and there they continued to carve.
Another relative, Ellen Trygg also carved figures in the flat plane style.
Trygg generally carved solo figures from basswood or pine, and mounted them on a base.
He had a stylized execution with clean cuts, working from a single piece of wood.