Biography

Knute August Heldner was born in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. He lived in the village Vederslöv, Växjö Municipality

Växjö Municipality

Växjö Municipality is a municipality in Kronoberg County in southern Sweden, where Växjö is the seat.The municipality was created in 1971 by the amalgamation of the City of Växjö with the surrounding municipalities...

, Kronoberg County

Kronoberg County

Kronoberg County is a County or län in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Skåne, Halland, Jönköping, Kalmar and Blekinge. Its capital is the city Växjö.- Province :For History, Geography and Culture see: Småland...

, Småland

Småland

' is a historical province in southern Sweden.Småland borders Blekinge, Scania or Skåne, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means Small Lands. . The latinized form Smolandia has been used in other languages...

, Sweden. His early formal training was at Karlskrona Technical School

Blekinge Institute of Technology

The Blekinge Institute of Technology is a public, state funded Swedish Institute of technology in Blekinge with more than 8,000 students and offers 350 courses in 40 educational programmes in five schools at two campuses located in Karlskrona and Karlshamn.The institute focuses on applied...

 and the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts

Royal Swedish Academy of Arts

The Royal Swedish Academy of Arts or Kungl. Akademien för de fria konsterna, founded in 1773 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden...

 in Stockholm. He migrated to America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 around 1902. He lived in Duluth, Minnesota

Duluth, Minnesota

Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...

 until 1934 and then he eventually made his home in New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

. He is a famous painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

. He was married to Collette Pope Heldner

Collette Pope Heldner

Collette Pope Heldner was a painter. She was born in Minnesota in 1902. She married Knute Heldner, also a painter, who was her instructor at a school in Minnesota. The two lived and painted in New Orleans, Louisiana from about 1923 onward. She died in 1990....

, who was also a painter and his one time student from a school in Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

.

He won the gold medal at the Minnesota State Fair

Minnesota State Fair

The Minnesota State Fair is the state fair of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its slogan is "The Great Minnesota Get-Together." It is the 2nd largest fair in the United States, and the largest state fair in the United States in terms of average daily attendance, though the State Fair of Texas runs...

 in 1915.. In 1921 he exhibited his work in the Swedish American Artist's Association in the Swedish Club in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. His style was modern expressionistic, derived from his training as an artist in Sweden. He was recognized for painting of Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 landscapes

Landscape art

Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...

. His best paintings however were portrait

Portrait

thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...

s. His work entitled Bearers of burdens was turned into a print.

Knute Heldner died during 1952 in Orleans Parish, Louisiana at 77 years of age.

Other sources

• Collette Pope Heldner. Artists' Bluebook
• Knute Heldner, Artists' Bluebook
• Louisiana State University Museum of Art brochure
  Louisiana State University
  Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...