Provenance: Santa Fe Art Auction, Santa Fe, NM, 2014 Private collection, New Mexico Painted in Birger Sandzén’s distinctive style of impressionism, with thick brushstrokes stacked around impasto-style paint that leaps from the canvas, Saline River, Russell, Kansas, depicts a portion of the 400-mile Saline River that crosses diagonally through much of Kansas. The name of the river refers to its briny content, with higher levels of salt than surrounding rivers. The river originally had the Native American name Ne Miskua, and later French trappers used a French translation before it was named the Saline River. How Sandzén, a Swedish painter who studied throughout Europe, came to live and work in rural Kansas is one of the quainter stories of the American West and its power over people around the world. In 1894, after studying abroad, Sandzén was given a booklet on Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, where a community of Swedish immigrants was growing. With little more than a booklet to guide his journey, Sandzén came to the United States. Once in Kansas, he took a job at Bethany College, where he remained on the faculty until 1946. His work in Kansas, Colorado and Utah include some of the most iconic American landscapes of the 20th century.