Ranch in Mendenales

Most famous for his etchings and woodblock prints, B.J.O. Nordfeldt was also an accomplished painter. Born in Sweden, Nordfeldt moved to America as a teenager and was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He traveled around Europe early in his career and became heavily influenced by the European modernist painter Paul Cézanne and his analytical examination of mass and structure in his landscapes. Drawn to the southwest region of the United States and its dramatic topography, Nordfeldt moved to Santa Fe in 1919, where he lived until 1940. It was during his period in Santa Fe that he created this landscape scene of a ranch in New Mexico. Nordfeldt also has ties to the Twin Cities, as he was a professor at the Minneapolis School of the Arts (now Minneapolis College of Art and Design) in the 1940s.