Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-06-03
DAVID EOsTROM To
VISIT IN THE WEST.
FORMER oTTuMWAN, NOW NOT.
ED SCULPTOR; TO BE GUEST
At Los ANGELES.
TO BE WITH SISTER
Pacific Coast City Is Anxiously Await.
Ing Coming Of Man Whom kinas
and Princes Are Proud to
Call Friend.
TO BE WITH SISTER

Call Friend.
David Edstrom Is soon to visit Los
Angeles and the entire city Is anxious.
~ awaiting the coming Of the great
artist and sculptor. David Edstrom IL
former Ottumwan. He lived here
for many years and was pupil under
the tutOrage of Johannes Scheiwe,
who started him on his way to fame
The Los Angeles Evening Herald Of
a recent date has the following on his
expected visit there
Bringing with him the laurels of
international fame won by dint OF
bitter struggle against poverty and
hardships, David Edstrorn, Swedish
sculptor, will soon visit Los Angeles.
| And eagerly awaiting the coming
of the great artist whom kings and
princes are proud to call friend, is
his sister, Mrs Hannah Skorgerson,
1851 Winfield street
| The two have not met for twenty
years, when David Edstrom, then a
poor boy, left his home in Ottumwa,
Iowa, in search Of the fame he has
now realized.
Back In Ottumwa a score of years
ago David Edstrom, the son of poor
preacher, struggled for a livelihood
by selling papers, working In fac-'
tory as metal polisher and later as
a meat salter in slaughter house.
Now at 40 years Of age David Ed
strom returns to America heralded
as the American Rodin" and "a sec
ond Michael Angelo"
Awaits Brother.
In the intervening years brother and
sister have kept In close touch with
one another Scarcely able, however,
to realize that the boy she babe good
bye twenty years ago has achieved
the pinnacle of worldwide fame, Mrs.
Skorgerson, in her coy apartments,
awaits his visit with eagerness.
TT seems impossible for me to re-
alize that my brother is an artist
whose fame Is international" she de-
clared today. ITO me he is still the
young lad, poor, but with an over
whelming ambition, who left our little
home in Ottumwa twenty years ago.
can hardly wait to see him.
mo one realizes better than | how
deserved his fame is. Through his
letters l have known how bitterly
hard has been his long, weary strug-
gle against the greatest obstacles. 1t
was heartrending battle against
privations and direst poverty before
he gained his niche in the gallery Of
fame Nothing less than real genius
could have survived and surmounted
the discouragements and hardships
that my brother has met and con-
quered.
Worked az stoker.
When David Edstrom left Ottumwa
to return to Sweden, his native coun-
try, he was Fl years old. He worked
his passage to Europe as a stoker, and
arrived there with capital of just $4
While studying his art in the schools
| OF Stockholm he kept body and soul
!, together by his scant earnings as a
gardener and by teaching English to
the Swedish WOrkingmen who were
thinking Of migrating to America.
Very slowly Edstrom began to win
| the recognition of art connoiseurs OF
Europe. The former newsboy OF OF
tumwa was given the adulation of the
old world, the friendship of royalty
He had reached a pinnacle of fame
even higher than his boyhood dreams
had pictured.
In 1913 the London Daily Sketch in
terviewed the then famous sculptor
and in part said: "Mr. David Ed
strom, the Swedish sculptor, who came
to London month or so ago, has al
ready reached the heart of English
society. Princess Patricia Of Con-
naught is giving him sittings for, her
bust and he has Just finished bust
of her brother-in-law, the crown prince
of Sweden"
Changes Allegiance.
Several years ago, at the behest OF
Prince Eugene Of Sweden, Edstrom
changed his allegiance from America
back to the land Of his fathers. The
famous sculptor assigned as the rea.
son for his action that the American
people had failed to show any appre-
citation of his art, with the exception
of Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, at that time
the only American to purchase any
of his works.
I'VE will buy your works of art and
keep them in our own country" urg-
ed the crown prince of Sweden, and
he kept his word The government |
has not only purchased large num-
Der of Edstron's best works and plac-
ed them in the famous Thielgmin gal
lery in Stockholm, but his entire col |
lection of sculpture is being cast IN
bronze and will be placed in Swedish
galleries.
i .