Biography from Kramer Gallery, Inc.
Carl Wendell Rawson (1884-1970) was a popular and prolific landscapist whose North Woods and Lake Superior vistas were frequently reproduced in calendars and premiums.
Rawson studied at the Cummings School of Art, Des Moines ; the Minneapolis School of Art (today the Minneapolis College of Art and Design); and the National Academy of Design in New York. He was staff cartoonist for the Minneapolis Tribune from 1902 to 1915, after which he devoted himself to painting.
Rawson’s many portrait commissions included civic and education leaders in Iowa and Minnesota. His landscapes, brightly colored and thickly brushed, usually depict Midwestern forests, lakes and rivers, as well as a favorite subject, the North Shore of Lake Superior. Rawson’s landscapes were frequently reproduced for calendars, magazines, and newspapers.
Written and submitted by Thomas O’Sullivan, museum curator and freelance writer.
Citations
Rena Neumann Coen, MINNESOTA IMPRESSIONISTS (1996)
Sally W. Michener: “Among Those We Know: Carl W. Rawson” (1939)
