Anders Zorn

Anders Zorn was born on his grandfather's farm in Mora and spent his childhood in the folkloristic Dalarna. His mother was a "dalkulla", as the independent women of this province are called and she worked at a brewery in Stockholm. Here she met, Leonard Zorn, a German, who fathered her son, before moving to a brewery in Helsinki.

Neither of Anders Zorn's parents had any artistic background, but Anders, early in his life, showed an aptitude to cut horses and figures in wood. He got his first Daintbox when he was staying with his mother in the archipelago of Stockholm. She was working as a maid in the home of a brewer and it was here that Anders' artistic talent was discovered.

Now the boy of simple background got powerful backing. His elementary studies were taken care of and at the age of fifteen he joined the Academy in Stockholm. He had a poor attendance record and left after a couple of years as he felt he had nothing to learn. At twenty-five he declared that he "had surpassed all predecessors and contemporary" artists.

Anders Zorn painted what he saw. He did not have any fantasy, except to sometimes beautify his female models. He had a talent to catch a movement, a figure or a face and reproduce it phenomenally. You can see this in the waves and the magical play of the water or in the discernible heat of the skin in his voluptuous models.

Most people associate Zorn's art with naked ladies. He was the first established artist to paint his nudes in nature and in natural light. But he did not limit himself to nudes.He also painted a lot of conventional motives and quite a few with colourful settings from his native Dalarna.

Zorn lived in London between 1882 and 1885 and in Paris from 1888 to 1896. Already in 1882 one of his watercolours was exhibited in the Paris Salon and in 1884 he was given a place of honour at the spring exhibition of the Royal Institute of Watercolours in London, exhibiting, among other things, his famous portrait "Grandmother". From 1887 on Zorn was chiefly occupied with oilpainting and etching. In Paris he belonged to the leading art circles and in the spring of 1888 the

French State bought his first big oil work "A fisherman" painted in S t Ives, Cornwall.

"Margit" and "Midnight" were painted in Mora in the summer of 1981 and both were sold in Paris the year after. That winter he also painted the little study of a sitting model and the portrait of his wife "Emma Zorn in the Studio" which was exhibited at the Salon of Societé Nationale de Beaux Arts.

Zorn spent 1893 in the United States where he was commissioner of the Swedish Art Department of the Chicago World Fair. He returned to the United States six times and left an important part of his work there, having painted and etched portraits of many prominent Americans including President Grover Cleveland and President William Taft (The White House, Washington D.C.). Zorn also painted numerous portraits in France, England, Germany and other countries and his work in this genre is generally admired for its taut composition and fine psychological description.

As an etcher Zorn was not only compared to Rembrandt, but according to many art critics, he surpassed the Dutch master in this genre. Zorn had a masterly technique that is especially remarkable when light or water is involved.

Anders Zorn was also an accomplished sculptor and it is his "Gustav Vasa" that greets the Vasalopp's skiers when they arrive in Mora. The skiers pass not far from Zorn's mansion where he lived and worked during the last twenty-four years of his life. The charming house containing Zorn's studio, the collection of old Dalecarlia houses nearby and the Zorn Museum with a lot of his art are all open to the public. The museum also contains parts of Anders and his wife Emma's personal and very large art collection. It was all a donation since the couple did not have any children.

Zorn became a very wealthy man. He worked hard both at work and play. He was a great friend of his contemporaries Carl Larsson, Bruno Liljefors and Prince Eugene and there are many stories of their, periodically, rambunctious life.

Zorn travelled widely and each year spent part of the summer on his sailing yacht Mejt. He has been described as a combination of a stubborn Dalecarlian artist and a grand seigneur.

Anders Zorn died at the age of 60 when he was still full of new ideas and projects. He was Sweden's most international artist and besides him it is really only the sculptor Carl Milles and artist Carl Larsson who have achieved similar world renown.

In. their will Anders and his wife Emma (nee Lamm 1860-1942) donated almost their entire holdings to the Swedish State. The name of the foundation is The Zorn Collections, but it consists of four parts; The Zorn Museum , the Zorn Manor (that is open for the public and has remained untouched since the passing away of Emma), Zorn's Gammelgdrd, a small Skensen-type open-air museum on the lake Siljan, and Gopsmor, Anders Zorn's wilderness studio on the Österdalälven. All give an insight into Sweden's great painter.