Earl L. Stendahl

Earl L. Stendahl (born Earl Leopold Steendahl; December 11, 1888 - May 18, 1966) was a pioneering American art dealer known for promoting California Impressionism, modern and pre-Columbian art. 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.

Life and work

Earl L. Stendahl was born in Menomonie, Wisconsin of Norwegian descent to a large family of confectioners. 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 U.S. 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. Enid Isaacson Stendahl traveled internationally with her husband Earl, searching far and wide for art discoveries.

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. Stendahl's son, Alfred E. Stendahl and son-in-law, Joseph Dammann, joined the family business. 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 W. Dammann, presiding.

References

• Dammann, April. Exhibitionist: Earl Stendahl, Art Dealer as Impresario, Santa Monica: Angel City Press, 2011.
• Stendahl Art Galleries Records, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
• Kaufman, Louis. A Fiddler's Tale, Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.
• Goodwin, George M., interviewer, "Los Angeles Community: Group Portrait, Alfred Stendahl." Oral History Program, UCLA, 1977.
• Anderson, Antony; Cook, Alma May; Hogue, Fred S.; Millier, Arthur. William Wendt and His Work, Los Angeles: Stendahl Art Galleries, 1926.
• Trenton, Patricia and Gerdts, William. California Light 1900-1930, Laguna Beach: laguna Art Museum, 1990.
• Moure, Nancy Dustin Wall. Dictionary of Art and Artists n Southern California Before 1930, Los Angeles: privately printed, 1975.
• Farmer, Edward M., editor. Native Arts of the Pacific Northwest from the Rasmussen Collection of the Portland Art Museum, Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1949.
• Dailey, Victoria; Shivers, Natalie; Dawson, Michael. L.A.'s Early Moderns, Los Angeles: Balcony Press, 2003.