Carl Christian Anton Christensen was born in Denmark in 1832.  A convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an early immigrant to Salt Lake City, his interest in Mormon pioneer history and The Church’s religious themes dominates his paintings. He died in 1912 in Ephraim, Utah.

Christensen studied painting and toy making at the Academy of Art in Copenhagen, but monumental narrative scenes are his best-known work.  Christensen’s work has a naïve or primitive quality that results from his simple treatment of perspective and anatomy, products of his early training in Denmark.  His paintings of scenes from daily life reflect a narrative skill that defines him as a visual historian of the Mormon pioneer experience.

Christensen’s greatest achievement came after his arrival in Utah when he completed Mormon Panorama, a 22-scene narrative that tells the migration story of an early leader of The Church, Joseph Smith, to Utah.  The panels depict his journey: from his vision in Palmyra to the Mormon pioneers’ arrival in the Great Salt Lake Valley.  This panorama was primarily exhibited in communities where members of The Church lived.  The Immigration of the Saints depicting the arrival of an immigrant family in Salt Lake City in the 1860s is one of the largest of Christensen’s easel paintings. The painting portrays the communal bonding fundamental to Mormon immigrant life.  In addition to these works, Christensen also painted scenes for the Salt Lake Theater and murals for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Temples in St. George, Manti, and Logan, Utah.

Biographical information on this page was adapted from the Springville Museum of Art.