Gunnar Widforss

Gunnar Mauritz Widforss (October 21, 1879 – November 30, 1934) was a Swedish American artist who specialized in painting subjects from the wilderness in watercolor.

Widforss' mother was an amateur artist who had studied at the Technical Institute, now Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design.

[2] [3] Following the completion of his studies at the Technical Institute in 1900, Widforss traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia to work as an apprentice decorative painter.

[4] Widforss worked primarily in watercolor and he led a bohemian lifestyle traveling in search of great landscapes to paint.

From 1906 to 1907 he visited the United States where he resided in Jacksonville, Florida and later Brooklyn, New York doing odd jobs and paintings on commission.

According to the U.S. Census in April 1930, he resided as a lodger in the San Francisco home of Théophile Fritzen and was an unmarried landscape artist who officially became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1929.

D. C., and an artist also known for his extraordinarily accurate drawings and watercolors, commented on Widforss' Grand Canyon paintings in the exhibit.

In 1926 and 1928 Widforss participated in two exhibits at the Brooklyn Museum of art sponsored by the Society of Scandinavian American Artists.

In 1934, Widforss was diagnosed with heart disease and told to avoid the high altitude of Grand Canyon Village.