Elias Henrik Erdtman was a visual artist born in 1863 in Linköping. He studied at the Technical School in Stockholm in 1881, later as as a private student of Oscar Törnå from 1882–1883, and studied etching with Axel Tallberg in 1886. He then traveled and continued his education in Düsseldorf from 1884–1885. He undertook study trips to Belgium and France.

     In 1886 he was part of the prominent artist colony in Grez-sur-Loing together with the artists Ernst Josephson and Carl Larsson. Other artists who visited 'Grez' at that time were the famous playwright and artist August Strindberg, the Finnish sculptor Ville Vallgren, Julia Beck, Oscar Björck, Eva Bonnier, and Georg Pauli. Bruno Liljefors and Anders Zorn also made brief visits to the colony. Many Danish and Norwegian painters would visit and later gain prominence at the Skagen artist colony in Denmark. While in 'Grez', Erdtman focused from then on as a landscape painter.
    The artist participated in most of the Artists' Association's exhibitions from 1898 onward and was a member of the Artists' Union Board from 1915–1920. In 1915 Erdtman carried out a large mural for Linköping's new educational institution, the current Cathedral School.

     He had solo exhibitions in Norrköping Museum in 1919, in Stockholm in 1922 and 1926, in Linköping in 1932, in Stockholm in 1933, in Västerås in 1937. Retrospective exhibitions were held in Eskilstuna in 1938 and in Stockholm in 1942. He was also represented at several of the Östergötland Art Union exhibitions.

     Erdtman’s style was characterized as “impressionistic realism”. He excluded from his works all elements he considered irrelevant and temporal in his paintings. He instead concentrated on the lines and colors and harmony with his imagination, creating a lingering sense of the eternal.
    Erdtman is represented at the National Museum in Stockholm, Kalmar Art Museum, and Norrköping Art Museum.