Axel Linus was born in Oreboro, Sweden in 1885. He became known as a painter of the American west, capturing desert landscapes and scenes of New Mexico and Arizona. Linus gained his artistic training at the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm and continued his studies at the Colorossi Academic and Academic Modern in Paris. In Sweden, he became an well-known painter of portraits and landscapes. In 1920, the immigrated to Chicago where he worked as a muralist for the Chicago World's Fair.

In 1940, Linus moved west to Palm Springs, California where he fell in love with the desert. Throughout his life he would travel to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Florida to paint. One of his favorite subjects was the Superstition Mountains  on the isolated Hopi Reservation. Here, he would set up camp for weeks at a time, to paint the entrancing desert buttes and riverbeds. Linus became highly regarded for these rare depictions of the Superstition Mountains. Linus was a member of the Desert Art Center and the Palm Desert Palette Club.