Works by Carl J. Nordell

Carl Johan David Nordell 1885-1957

Birth place: Copenhagen, Denmark.
Birth date: September 23, 1885
Death date: June 6, 1957
Death place: Temple City, CA
Addresses: Boston, MA, through 1927; Long Island, NY, 1927-30; moved to Connecticut, 1930; Sarasota, FL 1931; Westfield, NY, 1941-51; San Fernando & Temple City, 1951-1957.
Profession: Painter, etcher, teacher, book illustrator.
Studied: BMFA Sch. with Tarbell; ASL with Bridgman and F. V. DuMond; RISD; Académie Julian, Paris with J. P. Laurens, 1910-14.
Exhibited: Boston AC, 1909, 1918; NAD, 1916-41; PAFA Ann., 1909-28; AIC, 1912-17; Corcoran Gal biennials, 1912-26 (5 times, incl. 4th prize, 1912); P.-P. Expo, 1915 (med); Swedish-Am. Exh., Chicago, 1917 (prize); SC, 1923 (prize), 1937 (prize), 1941 (prize); North Shore AA, 1928 (prize); Nashville, Tenn., 1930 (prize); Chautauqua Inst.; Erie Art Mus.
Member: North Shore AA; SAE; Calif. PM; Brooklyn Society of Etchers; Chautauqua County SA; Boston WCC; SC; Boston AC
Work: CMA; NYPL; LOC: Smithsonian Inst.; Bibliothèque Nationale; Victoria & Albert Mus., London; portraits in Dartmouth Col.; Oberlin Col.; Wellesley Col.; Williams Col.; Hunter Col.; New York State Appellate Div., Rochester, NY

Carl Johan Nordell was born in Copenhagen on September 23, 1885. In the 1890's the Nordell family settled in Westerly, New Jersey, where he received his education. He gained admittance to the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated in 1905. He continued his training at the Art Students League in New York City for two years under instruction from George Bridgman and Frank DuMond.

Around 1906 he entered the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston studying under Tarbell. In 1909 Nordell received the Paige Traveling Scholarship and spent two years of study in Europe including the Academy Julian in Paris. He returned to Boston in 1911 where the Boston Art Club displayed his watercolors and oils to the viewing public.

Nordell remained in Boston at Fenway Studios and exhibited in the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Corcoran Gallery where in 1912 he won the Clarke Prize. He also exhibited several works in 1915 at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition winning a silver medal. In 1918 the Boston Art Club exhibited some fifty of his works. During the 1920's Nordell became interested in printmaking and in 1923 won the Salmagundi Club Shaw Prize for etching. During his time in Boston he married painter Emma Alice Parker(Polly Nordell). In 1927 Nordell moved to Long Island residing for several years in the Oakdale Artists Colony(Dowling College). He held a teaching position with Grand Central Art Galleries and in 1931 went to Sarasota, Florida to become one of the first Instructors in Art for the newly formed Ringling School of Art and Design.

After the after the death of his wife in the 1930s he remarried to Helen Eddy and moved to Westfield, New York. There he instructed at the Chautauqua Institution during the summers. In 1947 the Nordells moved to San Fernando, California for ten years where they both worked providing art therapy in local hospitals. On June 6, 1957 Carl Nordell died in Temple City, California at the age of 72.

AskART reference for Carl Nordell
Carl Nordell auction results
Cleveland Museum of Art
Dowling College estate history
Smithsonian Institute collection

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