"Gyde-Petersen, A Skagen Artist in America," by John Robert Christianson

Mankato, Minnesota, was thrilled. A famous artist had come to town with his palette, easel, and painter's smock, and people noticed. The Mankato Free Press ran a story under a bold headline: The reporter gushed away for two columns on the delight of having in their midst a European artist who had been knighted by a king.

The year was 1924. My mother was a teen-aged college student at the time, and she came from Mankato. She told me that her "Uncle Gyde's" English skills were rudimentary. When curious residents peered over his sh...