Florence Lundborg

{{short description|Illustrator and painter}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Florence Lundborg

|image = Florence Lundborg (Lundberg) - NARA - 20807384 (cropped).jpg

|caption = Lundborg c. 1917

|birth_date =

|birth_place = San Francisco, California, US

|death_date = January 18, 1949

|death_place = New York City, US

|other_names =

|known_for =

|occupation = Painter

}}

Florence Lundborg (1871 – January 18, 1949) was an American illustrator, poster artist, and painter known for her book illustrations and wartime paintings.

She was a member, with Gelett Burgess, of the San Francisco group "Les Jeunes", who published The Lark in the 1890s; Lundborg designed some of the covers.{{cite web | title=Brooklyn Museum | website=Brooklyn Museum | url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/67303 | access-date=2020-01-15}}{{cite web | title=1897 The Lark, Book the second | website=Rare Posters and Prints | date=2019-05-14 | url=https://www.rare-posters.com/b20.html | access-date=2020-01-15}}

Lundborg spent the winter of 1899-1900 studying in Paris with James Abbott McNeill Whistler.{{cite web | title=Variant Covers with Native American Themes | website=The Art of American Book Covers | date=2004-02-27 | url=http://americanbookcovers.blogspot.com/2014/03/vaiant-covers-with-native-american.html | access-date=2020-01-15}} She had previously studied in San Francisco with Arthur Mathews at the California School of Design.

She was a co-founder and early member of the Book Club of California.{{cite web | title=World’s Fair | website=The Book Club of California | date=2012-11-05 | url=https://www.bccbooks.org/history/san-francisco-here-they-came-the-1915-worlds-fair/ | access-date=2020-01-15}}{{cite web | title=About Our Members | website=The Book Club of California | date=2012-11-05 | url=http://www.bccbooks.org/old-membership/our-members/ | access-date=2020-01-15}} Her murals were in the Tea Room of the California Building at the Panama Pacific International Exposition. She received a bronze medal for oil painting at the exposition. She received commissions to paint murals in private homes in Portland, Chicago, New York and San Francisco.{{cite web | title=Artist | website=International Fine Print Dealers Association | url=https://www.ifpda.org/artist/1394 | access-date=2020-01-15 | archive-date=2020-01-15 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200115005228/https://www.ifpda.org/artist/1394 | url-status=dead }}

In 1909 she traveled through Europe with fellow artist and book designer Belle McMurtry.{{cite news |last1=Jerome |first1=Lucy |title=In the Art World |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19090314.2.111&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1 |accessdate=15 January 2020 |work=San Francisco Call |volume=105|issue=104 |date=March 14, 1909 |page=33}} From 1915 to 1917 Lundborg and McMurtry shared a studio in the Studio Building on Post Street, San Francisco.{{cite news |last1=Garnett |first1=Porter |title=News of Art and Artists |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/80966828/ |accessdate=15 January 2020 |work=The San Francisco Call |date=August 25, 1912 |page=31}} They moved together to New York in June 1917. After moving to New York, Lundborg began to illustrate books and became known for her illustrations of “The Rubaiyat”, “Yosemite Legends” and “Odes and Sonnets”. Once in New York, she also began to paint murals and received a large commission for her allegorical mural "Quest for Knowledge" installed at Curtis High School in Staten Island in 1933.{{cite web | last=Carse | first=Kathryn | title=Tour: Worker murals paint vivid portrait of Staten Island history | website=silive | date=2015-07-23 | url=https://www.silive.com/entertainment/arts/2015/07/wpa_murals_in_st_george_provid.html | access-date=2020-01-15}} The mural was conserved and restored in 1999.{{cite web | title=Design Commission - Seventeenth Annual Design Awards | website=Welcome to NYC.gov | date=1999-03-10 | url=https://www1.nyc.gov/site/designcommission/awards/past-awards/design-awards-17.page | access-date=2020-01-15}}

File:Nixies, by Florence Lundborg.jpg|Nixies, from Honey-bee

File:Florence Lundborg illustration.jpg|Illustration from Yosemite legends

File:The Lark (for) November - FL LCCN2002721218.jpg|Cover from The Lark, 1895