Review:
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Review: C.C.A. Christensen: A Mormon Visionary
Author: Jennifer Champoux
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Year Published: 2026
Pages: 140
Format: Trade Paperback
Genre: Mormon Art; Art History
ISBN: 9780252089213
Price: $17.95
Reviewed by Kevin Folkman for the Association for Mormon Letters
This review begins with a personal note about Mormon artist C.C.A. Christensen. On his 1857 trip to Utah after converting to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and serving a mission in Norway, the Danish artist and his wife, Elise, along with several missionary companions, joined one of the handcart companies. Clashes arose with the company’s Scottish captain, who spoke no Danish, and the several hundred Danish converts, who spoke no English. At Florence, Nebraska, Christian Christiansen agreed to replace the unpopular Scot and appointed C.C.A. as one of his sub-captains, after which “…things went much better.”[1]
My great-grandfather Jens Peter Folkman and his wife Kristine, along with Jens’ father, Jorgen Folkman, were among the Danish immigrants in that company. Jorgen, at age 64, was the oldest member of the company and was remembered for several incidents, including getting lost along the trail and being separated from the company for nearly a week, and also for his lack of a sense of smell, which led him to kill a skunk and offer it for food. Needless to say, the skunk was refused, and Jorgen was isolated for a few days from his fellow immigrants.
This story has bearing on the life of C.C.A. Christensen, as his most famous painting, The Handcart Company, depicts a middle-aged man and his wife, accompanied by the oldest-looking man in the painting, crossing a stream with their handcart. It is impossible to tell from the painting, but within our family it is held as highly probable that Christensen included my ancestors from memory.
Family lore aside, Jennifer Champoux’s small volume, “C.C.A. Christensen: A Mormon Visionary,” is the latest in the series of Introductions to Mormon Thought from the University of Illinois Press. Champoux points out that Christensen was more than just a painter. Although he is most remembered for his art, he also wrote poetry, hymns, and articles for Danish and English language versions of church publications on a variety of topics, including water rights and usage, public architecture, and others. His contributions represented a man of many interests beyond his art.
Christensen studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, sharing classrooms at times with Carl Bloch, famed for his paintings of the life of Christ. Christensen, however, began to prioritize his religion over his art studies, discontinued his classes at the Academy, and emigrated to Utah after his Norwegian mission.
Champoux, founder and director of the Book of Mormon Art Catalog, approaches C.C.A. Christensen from all facets of his life, beginning with his art. She argues that Christensen, best known for his Mormon Panorama series, relied heavily on his formal training and strong Danish and European influences. His art reflects both the Old World view of wilderness as a dark presence and the developing American Hudson River School, which featured emotive landscapes. Christensen’s Book of Mormon series “…tapped into Christian iconography about exile and retribution, American ideals about expansion and progress, and Latter-day Saint beliefs about spiritual and material restoration.: [p. 25]
These influences, Champoux asserts, remained consistent throughout Christensen’s career, despite the development of new styles, including the Impressionist movement. Another aspect of European art present in Christensen’s work was the French Orientalist movement, built on a fascination with Middle Eastern and Asian culture. Much of the clothing, background landscapes, and architectural elements found in Christensen’s work resemble the standards of mid-19th century European artists. Removed from their context, the accuracy of such depictions might be questioned, but at the time these standards were widely accepted. Christensen’s attention to detail was a product of his efforts at authenticity, also typical of other contemporary artists. Many of his paintings were based on the actual eyewitness accounts of his subjects, such as the previously mentioned handcart company and his portrayals of major events from the early days of the Restoration.
Similarly, his writing celebrated “…leaving the old world behind and building Zion in a new country. [p78] In a poem included in a Danish language hymnal, Christensen wrote:
In Ephraim’s Land in the Far West
Shall beautiful peace be celebrated
And the children of the covenant far and near
Will find the Lord’s Zion there. [p80]
Later, in the beginning of the 20th century, the LDS Church encouraged “…assimilation in language, culture, and belief,” stressing its Americanness. [p90] Christensen, meanwhile, seemed ever more nostalgic for his Scandinavian roots, along with many other Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians in Utah. Both his art and his writings from this period emphasized a fondness for his heritage. In addition to working in the Church Historian’s Office, Christensen wrote articles for the Bikuben, a Danish language newspaper that was published in Utah until 1935. He wrote poetry, editorials, letters, and histories more often in his native Danish. In one poem, Christensen envisioned a Scandinavian stake organized in the afterlife where the Saints spoke only Danish, showing the tension between the greater Americanization of the church and the respect for his Danish heritage.
Champoux’s “C.C.A. Christensen: A Mormon Visionary” is short but eloquently captures the influences and vision of one of Mormonism’s earliest artists, an individual who was much more than that. His work exhibits an effort to capture as accurately as possible the beginnings and spiritual history of the church that brought him out of Europe and into a promised Zion in the Western United States. This volume also brought greater understanding of this reviewer’s own Scandinavian heritage. It is a must-have for students of LDS history and art, and of interest for members as a whole.
[1] C.C.A. Christensen’s account of the 1857 handcart company at https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/transcript?name=transcript-for-c-c-a-christensen-by-handcart-to-utah-the-account-of-c-c-a.