Ernfred Anderson was born on August 28, 1896 in Äsperöd, which is a small village near Simrishamn in the region of Skåne, Sweden. This region was once part of Denmark and influenced its architecture, clothing and traditions. It is a beautiful region of rolling hills rich in farmland and fishing communities on its coasts. Skåne is the backdrop of the Goose Boy story.

Mr. Anderson’s mother, Cecilia, was an accomplished weaver. It seems She passed on her interests in art and design to her daughters and sons for each of them followed a path in textiles, fine art and or design. Mr. Anderson always said he was encouraged in the arts because he was not much good in academic pursuits but had talent with his hands. This may be so, but he was also the youngest of the family and with all the influences ahead of him it was a natural career path to take.

When it was time, Mr. Anderson followed his brother, Anders, to the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, to study art. After completing his studies, He immigrated to the United States in his early twenties. He became good friends with the Landscape and portrait artist, Benjamin Osro Eggleston, who introduced Mr. Anderson to the art world then flourishing in Brooklyn, New York. Mr. Eggleston painted at least two portraits of Mr. Anderson that we know of. One is exhibited at Elmira College and the other, called “the Sculptor” (shown above), was destroyed in one of the many floods in Elmira. These floods claimed many works by Mr. Anderson.

Mr. Eggleston was a seasoned and influential artist and member of the Salmagundi Club, Brooklyn Arts Club and Vice President of the Brooklyn Society of Artists. Eggleston brought Anderson into these artist circles, which created connections that lead to Anderson building a studio in Brooklyn as a “Decorateur” focusing on the design of furniture and interior design. In time, his work became more large scale, creating architectural façade sculptural detail in the Art Deco and Art Nouveau Styles in vogue at that time. As he worked in clay rather than stone, Anderson would insist that he was a modeler, not a sculptor.  However, most people and other artists would place his considerable talents in the field of sculpture. To be accurate, Mr. Anderson’s artistic capabilities were very broad and encompassed all aspects of an esthetic profession and lifestyle.

It was during this time that Anderson met and married his muse, Roagnhild Weckman, from Finland. They had two daughters Eila Cecelia, born in 1919, and Inga Sophia, born in 1923. Mr. Anderson had a prosperous business until shortly after the Crash of 1929 when investments failed and once wealthy patrons disappeared.

After meeting fellow artist Lars Hoftrup at a meeting of the Seneca Art Association in 1933, Anderson decided to move his family to Elmira, New York. Hoftrup hosted Anderson when he first arrived in the city and the two became close friends. In 1938 they opened the Pine Gallery together on Dry Run Road outside of Pine City in an old barn that they renovated.

Anderson’s first job in Elmira was teaching art at School No. 11. He went on to teach drawing, sculpture and clay modeling at Elmira College. He also taught at the Elmira Reformatory and Cornell University during the course of his career. From 1942 until 1965 he served as the director of the Arnot Art Gallery where he did everything from creating exhibits and giving tours to trimming branches from trees outside the museum.

His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Chicago Swedish Club, Cornell University, the New York Art Center, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Academy, the Steele Memorial Library and the Arnot Art Museum. He was internationally known as a sculptor but he also painted, worked in stained glass, and restored and repaired artwork. He worked on several maps and paintings in Chemung County Historical Society’s collection.

One of Ernfred Anderson’s most famous works stands over the grave of Mark Twain in Woodlawn Cemetery. In 1937 Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch commissioned Anderson to create the monument to her father and husband that you see there today. Anderson received the commission for the monument after impressing Clara with a portrait bust that he had made of Mark Twain. Anderson sculpted the bust based from photographs of Twain and comments and criticisms from those who knew the writer. As was Anderson’s typical sculpting process, he made the bust of clay then cast it in plaster. Some years later it was cast again in bronze. Jervis Langdon considered it the finest likeness of Mark Twain he had ever seen.

This is a summary history. We will be working to update and expand on this history as this process progresses.