Clas Edvard Friström

Clas Edvard Friström, also known as Claes Edward Fristrom, was an artist and art teacher professionally active in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States of America.
Friström was born near Karlskrona in the parish of Torhamn, Blekinge County, Sweden on 23 January 1864.
Sometime in the mid-1880s this essentially self-taught artist moved to Brisbane, Australia, where he was known as Edward Friström. His brother, Oscar Friström, was a recognized photographer and helped to establish the Royal Queensland Art Society, where both of the brothers exhibited. Edward married Margaret Johnston of South Brisbane in July 1886; they had three children. In 1903 they moved to Auckland, New Zealand, where he taught at the Elam School of Fine Arts and exhibited with the Auckland Society of Artists.
In 1915 Edward and Margaret immigrated to California to join a son and daughter; initially they resided in the San Francisco Bay Area. According to the United States Census of 1920, he and his wife had moved to Monterey, California and neither had become naturalized citizens. Fristrom listed his occupation as "artist, portrait painting."