Gothenburg
Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
- 7 August 1971,
Woodstock
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...
) was a Swedish painter active mostly in the United States.
Biography
Henry Mattson was the son of laborer John Emil Mattson and Augusta Pettersson. He emigrated to America in 1906 and first worked as a helper at a mechanical workshop in
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...
. In his spare time, he engaged in self-study in painting, which was later supplemented by evening classes at the School of the
Worcester Art Museum
The Worcester Art Museum houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. The museum opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Its holdings include Roman mosaics, Europe ...
. After a few years of working at the mechanical workshop, he left his job to devote himself entirely to artistic pursuits. To deepen his knowledge of art, he returned to Gothenburg in 1912, where he was accepted as a student at the Valand Painting School. After just a few lessons, he was urged by his teacher (a well-known Gothenburg artist) to stay on as a student. Mattson immediately packed up his school supplies and returned to America.
He settled in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, where he worked in a factory during the day and continued his self-study and painting in the evenings. After four years in Chicago, he moved to the
Byrdcliffe Colony
The Byrdcliffe Colony, also called the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony or Byrdcliffe Historic District, was founded in 1902 near Woodstock, New York by Jane Byrd McCall Whitehead, Jane Byrd McCall and Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead and colleagues, Bolton Brow ...
in
Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, New York, Kingston. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The popula ...
in 1916, where he took lessons from the Swedish-American landscape painter John F. Carlson for three months. In the fall of 1921, he debuted with a small solo exhibition in New York, which, to his disappointment, did not bring him any attention.
Mattson continued to work tenaciously and eventually achieved a critical breakthrough, with Sheldon Cheney claiming Mattson should be considered one of America's great giant figures. In addition to a large number of exhibitions in America, he participated in group exhibitions in London, Paris and Italy. He was represented in the Swedish-American traveling exhibition that was shown in Sweden in 1920 and in the Swedish-American exhibition in Gothenburg in 1923. His public works include some frescoes at the post office in
Portland, Maine
Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...
. He married a woman named Daphne Sawyer in 1924.
During his career, he was awarded numerous scholarships and awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship for the Creative Arts in 1935 and a gold medal from the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States.
The academy's museum ...
in 1945. He became a member of the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...
in 1952.
Mattson's art consisted primarily of landscapes and machines, although he also painted portraits and still lifes. In his early art he was something of a poetic-mystical nature romantic who later developed towards a more heightened dramatic form of expression that is close to the stylistic language of
Albert Pinkham Ryder
Albert Pinkham Ryder (March 19, 1847 – March 28, 1917) was an American painter best known for his poetic and moody allegory, allegorical works and seascapes, as well as his Eccentricity (behavior), eccentric personality. While his art shared an ...
. Mattson is represented at several American museums, including at
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
,
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...
,
Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...
,
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...