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C.C.A. CHRISTENSEN
1831 - 1912
Christensen, affectionately known a C. C. A., was one of the most significant first generation Latter-day Saint artists. Born and educated in Copenhagen, Denmark, Christensen's artistic abilities were evident at a young age. After seeing his creative Christmas decorations at the Copenhagen orphanage, local citizens offered to finance his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Art housed in the Charlottenborg Palace.
At the time of Christensen's enrollment, the Royal Academy's curriculum emphasized the depiction of everyday life and the history of the Danish people. He later translated this focus into visual records of his own people, the Latter-day Saints.
Christensen was converted to the Latter-day Saint Church while studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Art. Filled with enthusiasm for his new religion, he served two missions to Scandinavia before emigrating to Utah in 1857 with his Norwegian bride. Following a third mission to Scandinavia in 1866, he realized that his artistic abilities had religious as well as financial potential.
In 1879, with financial backing from his brother, C. C. A. began the ambitious project of painting the Mormon Panorama . . . In addition, he collaborated with Mormon artists on three other panoramas, painted murals in two southern Utah temples, and portrayed accounts from the scriptures. Best known for his paintings of Church history, he depicted scenes typical of the early Latter-day Saint experience gleaned from firsthand accounts of Church members.
Although he had artistic training and Knowledge of the past art traditions through his academic training, Christensen's distinctive style is often characterized as unschooled and naïve. Unlike the more polished styles of his contemporaries, his was a contrived technique that implemented the simple geometric figures and principle of perspective learned during his early years at the Academy. However, his powerful talent as a storyteller combined with his deep religious convictions established him as on of the outstanding 19th century genre painters of the Mormon people.
Works Cited
Biography in Curatorial binders under C. C. A. Christensen, Exhibitions. Written by Dawn Pheysey, Curator at BYU MOA.
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