Background
Earl L. Stendahl was born in Menomonie, Wisconsin of Norwegian descent to a large family of confectioners.
Earl L. Stendahl was born in Menomonie, Wisconsin of Norwegian descent to a large family of confectioners.
He created one of the world"s most influential art galleries that celebrated its centennial, still operated by his family, in 2011. The Stendahl Gallery is one of America"s oldest (if not THE oldest) continuously operating private art galleries. In San Diego, California, Stendahl began selling the works of local painters and opened his first gallery at the inauguration of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1921.
Stendahl emerged as one of the most innovative and influential art dealers in Southern California.
By the 1930s, the gallerist had established his reputation as the premier dealer in painters of the California Impressionist School. William Wendt, Guy Rose, Edgar Payne, Joseph Kleitsch and Nicolai Fechin were part of the early Stendahl stable of artists.
Moving to larger quarters on Wilshire Boulevard, Stendahl introduced Modern art to the West Coast with works by Matisse, Chagall, Klee, Feitelson, Siqueiros, Kandinsky, Braque and Picasso. In 1939 his gallery was one of only two non-museum venues in the United States. to exhibit Pablo Picasso"s masterwork, Guernica as a fundraiser for Spanish war orphans.
Earl Stendahl sold to noted collectors, including William Randolph Hearst, Frank Lloyd Wright, George Gershwin, Edward G. Robinson, Vincent Price, David O. Selznick, Robert Woods Bliss and Nelson Rockefeller.
Art from the Stendahl collections found a home in The Louvre and in other institutions all over the world. As early as 1935, Stendahl began promoting ancient artifacts from Mexico and Central America and became the foremost purveyor of Pre-Columbian art of his day. The gallery"s archives were donated to the Smithsonian Institution"s Archives of American Art in 1976.
The Stendahl Gallery continues to operate, celebrating its centennial in 2011, with Earl Stendahl"s grandson, Ronald West. Dammann, presiding.