Lars Gustaf Sellstedt

Background

He was born on April 30, 1819 at Sundsvall, Sweden, a son of Erick and Eva Sellstedt. His paternal grandfather was a prosperous fuller and dyer; his maternal grandfather, a clergyman.

When his father died of consumption in 1828 and his mother remarried, his stepfather treated him with such cruelty as to drive him to seek service at sea.

Education

Lars was educated at Sundsvall and at Hernesand.

Career

In 1831 he became cabin-boy on a small Swedish trading vessel. Although he spent another winter at school in Sweden, for the most part his life after this was one of hardships and adventures, graphically described in his autobiography, From Forecastle to Academy: Sailor and Artist (1904). During a long voyage he learned English from Putnam Coffin, of Salem, Massachussets.

Trying his hand, while voyaging on the South American west coast, at making some drawings on whales' teeth, he found to his delight that he had artistic ability. He had learned, meantime, by experience that sailors were best treated on American ships, and he had heard that the most agreeable marine service in the world was that on the American Great Lakes. That information brought him in 1842 to Buffalo, which was at first only the headquarters of a young Swedish mariner taking various jobs on lake ships but later became his permanent home.

His first commission, to do a lady's portrait, brought him two dollars and, more important, valuable criticism from a local artist. He had useful training as a draftsman while employed one summer on a United States topographical survey of the Lakes, and he finally ventured to take a studio at a hundred dollars a year, then a very high rent. Living on bread and milk, he managed to make his way until sitters began to come at fair prices. In 1849 he spent some months in the West Indies but without much success.

With his wife he moved to New York, believing Buffalo too small a place for his career. After a short time, however, he was forced to return to Buffalo. His self-portrait, sent to the National Academy of Design in 1872, won commendation from Daniel Huntington and led to his election as an associate; in 1875 he became an Academician.

The success of an art exhibition opened at Buffalo in December 1861, which he had helped to arrange, led to the establishment of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. Of this he was the principal organizer, and, in 1876-77, the president. He was active in the Saturn and Liberal clubs of Buffalo.

He died in 1911.

Achievements

• Lars Gustaf Sellstedt helped to organize the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, published Art in Buffalo. He painted at Buffalo two presidents of the United States: Millard Fillmore and Grover Cleveland. Among his other important portraits were those of several mayors, hung in the Buffalo city hall. He was elected to National Academy of Design, as the recognition of Daniel Huntington of Sellstedt’s famous self-portrait.

Works

More photos

• book

  • From Forecastle to Academy: Sailor and Artist, Autobiography

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Art in Buffalo

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

Personality

Sellstedt had grown to be a cultivated, well-read man, deeply religious, active in many good causes.

Connections

On January 19, 1850 he married Louise Lovejoy. Soon she succumbed to Asiatic cholera. On June 11, 1856, he married Caroline Scott, daughter of William K. Scott of Buffalo, a successful physician. Their home soon became a center of artistic activities.

His long life was saddened by the death of an only son.

Father:

Erick Sellstedt

Mother:

Eva Sellstedt

Spouse:

Louise Lovejoy

Spouse:

Caroline Scott

father-in-law:

William K. Scott

Friend:

David Gray