John Edmund Strandberg (16 November 1911

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

- 25 August 1996

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

) was a

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

born in

Brännkyrka Brännkyrka is a parish in South Stockholm, Sweden. The population is 36,572. Brännkyrka, at that time much larger in area, was amalgamated into the city of Stockholm in 1913. This area now constitutes the southern main part of Stockholm Muni ...

, Stockholm County,

who later immigrated to

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada.

Biography

Born to Richard Gustaf Karlsson Strandberg and Ingrid Johansson in Brännkyrka, Strandberg began painting when he was still a child. He received his master's degree in Cabinet Making in 1930. At the onset of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he put his career on hold in order to join the Finnish Army. After the war, he studied with European artists in Stockholm, before immigrating to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada, in 1951, with his wife Eva Forsberg and their two daughters Inger and Marianne. In Canada, he anglicized his name from "Johan" to "John", a common practice among immigrants. He joined the Art Guild of York-Scarborough and studied under artists like Thomas Frederick Haig Chatfield and Arnold Benjamin Hodgkins.

Work

Strandberg was a

plein air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or plein-air painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting is c ...

landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a cohe ...

who painted in oils, using a

palette knife A palette knife is a blunt tool used for mixing or applying paint, with a flexible steel blade. It is primarily used for applying paint to the canvas, mixing paint colors, adding texture to the painted surface, paste, etc., or for Paper marbling, ...

of his own design. His inspiration was the Canadian landscape. He also did some

floral Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants (Flowering plant, angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls in ...

s and the occasional

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

. Strandberg toured Canada, the United States and Europe on solo exhibitions, as well as participating in several

art exhibition An art exhibition is traditionally the space in which art objects (in the most general sense) meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is occasionally true, it is stated to be a "permanen ...

s, such as The World of

Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

, United Artists, and The Artists Touring Association, even living in the US for a few years.

Signature

He signed his art as "J. Strandberg". The logo of The Art Guild of York-Scarborough with the initials "J S" is found on the back of some of his works.

Collections

Stranberg's paintings can be found in several institutional collections and other

art galleries An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

insurance companies Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

, and trust companies, as well as in

private collection A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individual ...

s.National Gallery of Canada - Library and Archives
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strandberg, John Edmund 1911 births 1996 deaths 20th-century Canadian painters Canadian landscape painters Artists from Ontario Swedish emigrants to Canada Swedish landscape painters Painters from Stockholm