1819-1911
Lars Sellstedt began a thirteen-year career at sea when he left home at the age of twelve to escape a disagreeable stepfather. After sailing around the world, he moved to Buffalo in 1842, where he hoped to find work in the Great Lakes shipping industry. In his spare time, he began to teach himself to paint. He had taken drawing lessons as a boy, and at sea had become an accomplished scrimshaw artist. In Buffalo, he was encouraged by William Wilgus, a painter about whom Sellstedt later wrote a book, and a Captain Black, the superintendent of Sellstedt's rooming house. After an unsuccessful attempt at a mercantile career in Chicago in 1844, he returned to Buffalo to become an artist.
Sellstedt studied anatomy at the Buffalo Medical College but seems to have received no other artistic instruction. He opened a studio as a portrait painter, embarking on a trip to the West Indies in 1849 in search of commissions. He married Louise Lovejoy in 1850, but following her death shortly thereafter, he returned to Sweden for over a year. He remarried in 1856, to Caroline Scott.
In Buffalo, Sellstedt is remembered for his pioneering efforts on behalf of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. With his friends Thomas Le Clear and William H. Beard, he arranged for its incorporation in 1862 and served as its superintendent for 28 years. His searches for works to be exhibited in Buffalo Academy exhibitions brought him to New York, where he had begun showing his work at the National Academy in 1858. His election as a National Academician in 1874 was, he confessed, "the culmination of my artistic hopes" (From Forecastle to Academy, 314). A year later, he took his only extended trip to the European art capitals, spending time in Italy with Charles C. Coleman and Elihu Vedder. Although he lived in Buffalo, Sellstedt kept up ties with his friends at the National Academy. At age 91, he sent his poem, "Farewell to Art," to his "brothers" at the NAD (Academy Archives). He died the following year.
Sellstedt studied anatomy at the Buffalo Medical College but seems to have received no other artistic instruction. He opened a studio as a portrait painter, embarking on a trip to the West Indies in 1849 in search of commissions. He married Louise Lovejoy in 1850, but following her death shortly thereafter, he returned to Sweden for over a year. He remarried in 1856, to Caroline Scott.
In Buffalo, Sellstedt is remembered for his pioneering efforts on behalf of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. With his friends Thomas Le Clear and William H. Beard, he arranged for its incorporation in 1862 and served as its superintendent for 28 years. His searches for works to be exhibited in Buffalo Academy exhibitions brought him to New York, where he had begun showing his work at the National Academy in 1858. His election as a National Academician in 1874 was, he confessed, "the culmination of my artistic hopes" (From Forecastle to Academy, 314). A year later, he took his only extended trip to the European art capitals, spending time in Italy with Charles C. Coleman and Elihu Vedder. Although he lived in Buffalo, Sellstedt kept up ties with his friends at the National Academy. At age 91, he sent his poem, "Farewell to Art," to his "brothers" at the NAD (Academy Archives). He died the following year.
