Painter, illustrator, etcher.  Born in Dals-Grinstad, Sweden on March 3, 1879.  From a poor family, Borg began copying pictures from books as a child.  At 15 he was apprenticed to a house painter and at 20 moved to London where he worked as an assistant to portrait and marine painter George Johansen.  Borg began to paint seascapes at this time.  In 1901 he sailed for the U.S. and worked as a house and furniture painter in the East.  

While serving as a seaman aboard the S.S. Arizonia, Borg jumped ship in San Francisco in 1903 and decided to make California his home.  Lacking funds, he walked the railroad track to Los Angeles.  He became friends with artist William Wendt who taught him painting techniques.  Through the patronage of Phoebe Hearst, he was able to return to Europe to study art in Paris and Rome.  Upon his return, Borg taught at the California Art Institute in Los Angeles and spent six months in Honduras during 1908.  From 1918-24 he lived in Santa Barbara where he taught at the School of the Arts.  The interval years 1924-35 were spent traveling, and in San Francisco, Los Angeles and the Grand Canyon.  He made three trips to Sweden the 1930s, and when war broke out in Europe, he was forced to remain there for the duration of the war.  While in Sweden, he had considerable fame and financial success in selling his paintings of Indians and desert scenes to art collectors.  After World War II ended, Borg returned to Santa Barbara for the rest of his life.

Member:  California Art Club;  Laguna Beach Art Association;  San Francisco Art Association;  California Society of Etchers;  Salmagundi Club, New York;  Associate of the National Academy of Design;  California Water Color Society;  Academy of Western Painters;  Societe International  des Beaux Arts et de Lettres, Paris;  California Printmakers;  Painters of the West.

Exhibited:  Ruskin Art Club, Los Angeles, 1905 (solo); Stedkel Galleries, Los Angeles, 1906 (solo);  Steckel Gallery, San Francisco, 1910;  Salmagundi Club, 1914.

Awards:  gold medal, St. Louis Expo, 1904;  first prize, Los Angeles Painters Club, 1909;  silver medal, Versailles, 1914;  first prize, California Art Club, 1915;  silver medal, Panama Pacific International Exposition, 1915;  silver and gold medals, Panama-California Exposition San Diego, 1915;  silver medal, Societe des Artistes Francais, 1920;  silver medal, Pacific South West Exposition, 1928;  and others.  

Works held:  Los Angeles County Museum Of Art:  Montclair, New Jersey,  Art Museum; California State Library, Sacramento;  Seattle Art Museum;  Library of Congress;  de Young Museum;  Lowie Museum, UC Berkeley;  Mills College (Oakland);  Oakland Museum;  Los Angeles Public Library;  Santa Barbara Museum;  National Museum of  American Art, Washington D.C. ;  Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris,  Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle;  Gothenburgh Ethnological Museum, Sweden;  Phoenix Museum.

(Biography courtesy Hughes, Edan Milton, "Artists in California: 1786-1940," San Francisco: Hughes Publishing Company, 1989.)