A Beautiful Reality: The Fine Art Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Rifkin

Exhibited

"Carl Sprinchorn: Realist Impulse and Romantic Vision" Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, November 13- December 30, 1983, no. 10.
"Carl Sprinchorn: King of the Woods" Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine, June 7- August 23, 2002.

Note

Born in Sweden in 1887, Carl Sprinchorn arrived in New York City at the age of 15, determined to begin a career as a painter. The youngest of seven children, one of his older sisters had emigrated before him and helped ease his transition to his new home. Sprinchorn had studied the work of American painter Robert Henri while in Sweden, and sought him out as a teacher at the New York School of Art, where Sprinchorn began his studies only days after moving to New York. Henri encouraged the younger artist, although Sprinchorn spoke no English upon his arrival, and eventually helped launch his career with submissions to national juried exhibitions and later gallery representation. Four of Sprinchorn’s paintings were included in the groundbreaking 1913 Armory Show in New York, and throughout his career he was supported by the Marie Sterner Gallery, the Macbeth Gallery, Zabriske, and Knoedler Gallery.

Sprinchorn traveled throughout the United States and Europe during his life, revisiting Sweden many times, and living in Maine periodically. He befriended the artist Marsden Hartley after Hartley viewed an exhibition of Sprinchorn’s drawings in 1916 at the Hellman Gallery in New York. Maintaining the friendship for nearly 30 years mostly by correspondence, the two artists shared a mutual admiration and influence, as both men found inspiration in the landscapes, changing seasons and local residents of their beloved Maine. Sprinchorn’s realistic, energetic style changed little throughout his career, whether he painted lumberjacks, vivid floral arrangements, winter landscapes or New York city streets.