Ski Art: Bror Thure de Thulstrup (1848-1930)

Thulstrup’s father was Sweden’s secretary of the navy in 1848 when Bror was born. He followed his father into service for the kingdom, graduating from the Royal Swedish Military Academy to join an artillery regiment. He was 20 years old. He then moved to Paris and joined the French Foreign Legion, with whom he served in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. He was then seconded to the First Zouave Regiment in Algiers. This is hardly the predictive background for “the foremost military artist in America,” as engraver, lithographer and leading publisher Louis Prang later characterized Thulstrup.

In 1872, now 24, Thulstrup took a civil engineering job in Canada and a year later crossed the border to the United States and started his career as an artist. He attended the Art Students League while working in New York, contributing to The New York Daily Graphic and, later, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. He became one of Harper’s artists and illustrated articles in upscale magazines such as Century and Scribners.

Thulstrup’s series of historical events of the Civil War brought him fame. But there was his Swedish background and he became intrigued with showing America how skiing should be. Out in the Midwest were communities of Scandinavians, living in small towns that continued to celebrate winter with much emphasis on skiing, whether for simple pleasure or for competition.

Ishpeming, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, took the leadership in the arrangements and it was there in 1905 that the National Ski Association was founded. The town’s Suicide Hill was the great attraction. In Thulstrup's illustration of an 1892 competition, the jump is well defined, the sats—the takeoff platform—is clearly shown and the jumper is doing the opptrek style, with the knees up. In those days jumpers could perform either like this or with legs straight and in more of a flying position—this method eventually won out because it provided the longer jump.

The short stick in hand was also optional. Many jumpers used it for balance, but it became a sort of mark of excellence because, back home in the old country, the best skiers held a small stick in hand as they jumped. There is good crowd control (this did not always happen), and a club man at the side is obviously keeping an eye on things.