Yngve Edward Soderberg

Yngve Edward Soderberg (December 21, 1896 – August 6, 1972) was an American artist whose career was centered on Mystic, Connecticut. He is credited with being a painter, etcher, writer, teacher, designer, and lithographer. He is best known for his etchings, America's Cup paintings and maritime watercolors.

Early life

Soderberg was born in Chicago, Illinois to Swedish immigrants Berlin and Gust Soderberg. He was one of three children born. By age of twelve, Soderberg had already shown interest in drawing. He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League of New York. He painted every America's Cup Race from 1930 and in 1937 sailed on the Endeavor II. His work was also part of the art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics and the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Depression and WWII

In 1934 he married Nancy Horn, a summer resident of Mason's Island from Paterson, New Jersey, and an accomplished sailor. During the Depression years he became a Works Progress Administration artist. His WPA mural, "Canal Era" painted in 1939, is located in the Morrisville, Pennsylvania Post Office. He worked for the Electric Boat Company during WWII where he painted morale posters for shipyard workers. Some posters were as large as eighteen feet high and depicted the cycle of events in building a submarine. While staying in Hyannisport, Massachusetts with a friend, he made a watercolor of a Wyanno Class boat with the number 94 on her and the name Victura on the stern. She was being sailed by John F. Kennedy. The future President bought the painting. "The picture is extremely good, "John F. Kennedy wrote. In the following two years, Soderberg was also a guest artist aboard the US Coast Guard Training Ship Eagle. He made two summer cruises with landings in Bermuda, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Nassau. In 1950, he began a 17-year career teaching at the New London High School, but his summers were free for vagabonding again. In 1952, he traveled to Price Edward Island, Cape Breton and the coast of Maine, which became subjects for many of his watercolors. In 1954, the American Swedish Historical Foundation held an exhibition of his work. In 1958, Soderberg first authored his book Drawing Boats and Ships, 1958, which is still in publication today. In 1962, a large three-panel mural of the training bark Eagle was dedicated at the United States Coast Guard Academy. The Coast Guard acquired other works by Soderberg. He continued to remain active painting and illustrating throughout his career and in 1966 illustrated Stormalong Goes a Whaling.

Soderberg died in 1972 at the age of 75 in Mystic, Connecticut.

Museum holdings

Asheville Art Museum, Asheville NC Denver Art Museum, Denver CO Lyman Allen Museum, New London CT Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury CT Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic CT Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City MO Portsmouth Abbey School, Portsmouth RI United States Post Office, Morrisville PA American International College, 1934, 1937 National Academy of Design, 1935 Chicago Society of Etchers, 1936 Kennedy Gallery, NY Society of American Graphic Artists, 1945 Grand Central Art Galleries, 1948 (solo), 1953 (solo) American-Swedish Museum, Philadelphia, 1954 (solo) Lyman Allyn Museum 1955 (solo), 1973 Macbeth Gallery, 1929–1930 Mystic, CT, 1959–60 Meriden, CT, 1961 Mystic Museum of Art, 2019

Member

Mystic Art Association: President 1951 – 1952. Society of American Graphic Artists Chicago Society of Etchers Society of American Etchers