Anders Zorn

Anders Leonard Zorn (18 February 1860 – 22 August 1920) was a Swedish painter. He attained international success as a painter, sculptor, and etching artist. Among Zorn's portrait subjects include King Oscar II of Sweden and three American Presidents: Grover Cleveland, William H. Taft, and Theodore Roosevelt. At the end of his life, he established the Swedish literary Bellman Prize in 1920.

Biography

Zorn was born and raised on his grandparents' farm in Yvraden, a hamlet near the village of Utmeland in the parish of Mora, Dalarna. He studied until the age of twelve in the school at Mora Strand before progressing in the autumn of 1872 to a secondary grammar school in Enköping.

From 1875 to 1880, Zorn studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm, where he amazed his teachers with his talent. Members of the Stockholm Society approached him with commissions. In early 1881, Zorn met Emma Lamm, whose background was quite different from his. Emma Lamm was from a wealthy Jewish merchant family. She was interested in art and culture and, after a long engagement, they were married in a civil ceremony in October 1885.

Zorn traveled extensively, to London, Paris, the Balkans, Spain, Italy and the United States; he became an international success and one of the most highly regarded painters of his era. It was primarily his skill as a portrait painter that gained Zorn international acclaim, based principally upon his incisive ability to depict the individual character of his model. His subjects included three American Presidents: Grover Cleveland, William H. Taft and Theodore Roosevelt.

Honors

At the age of 29, he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur at the Exposition Universelle 1889 Paris World Fair.

File:Anders Zorn - Mrs. Symons.jpg, Mrs. Symons, 1886
File:Anders Zorn - Lady with fur cape 1887.jpg, Lady with fur cape, 1887
File:Zorn Anders Mrs Potter Palmer.jpg, Mrs. Potter Palmer, 1893
File:Virginia P. Bacon by Anders Zorn, 1897.jpg, Mrs. Walter Rathbone Bacon, 1897
File:Oscar II of Sweden.jpg, The King of Sweden, King '' Oscar II '', 1898
Image:Henry Clay Pierce by Anders Zorn, 1899.jpg, ''Mr Henry Clay Pierce'', a noted financier and oil industry pioneer, 1899
File:Zorn-Motstaende side Mrs Frances Cleveland.jpg, Frances Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland, 1899
File:Anders Leonard Zorn - Grover Cleveland - Google Art Project.jpg, President Grover Cleveland, 1899
Image:Bruno Liljefors by Anders Zorn, 1906.jpg, ''The Painter Bruno Liljefors'', 1906
File:Anders Zorn - Hugo Reisinger.jpg, Hugo Reisinger holding a fashionable grey Homburg hat, 1907
File:Anders Zorn - Drottning Sophia 1909.jpg, The Queen consort of Sweden and Norway, Queen Sophia, 1909
Image:Anders Zorn - Portrait of William Howard Taft (1911).jpg, ''William Howard Taft'', 27th President of the United States, 1911
File:Ambassador David Jayne Hill by Anders Zorn (1860-1920).jpg, Ambassador David Jayne Hill, 1911
File:Anders Zorn - Portrait de Mme Ashley.jpg, Mme Ashley, 1920
File:Anders Zorn - Portrait of Mrs. Eben Richards.jpg, Mrs. Eben Richards, 1920

Collection

Zorn's art made him wealthy and he was thus able to build up a considerable collection of art. The objects were not only bought in his native country but also during the many travels he made abroad. In their joint will, Anders and Emma Zorn donated their entire holdings to the Swedish State.

Some of his most important works can be seen at the National Museum of Fine Arts (Swedish: '' Nationalmuseum'') in Stockholm. Among them is ''Midsummer Dance'' (1897), a depiction of dancers in the evening light of a rural Midsummer's Eve celebration. Other museums holding major works by Zorn include the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Zorn Collections (Swedish:''Zornsamlingarna'') located in Mora and Garberg, Älvdalen, consist of four museums dedicated to the life and works of Anders Zorn. The main museum – Zornmuseet – was designed by Ragnar Östberg and opened in 1939. Shown there are extensive works of Zorn and his collected art by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, 'The Hovingham Master' (Poussin's follower), Bruno Liljefors, Albert Edelfelt, and Pehr Hilleström.

The Bellman Prize (Bellmanpriset) is a literature prize for "an outstanding Swedish poet", every year awarded by the Swedish Academy. The prize was established by Anders Zorn and his wife Emma in 1920.

Zorngården

In 1886, Anders Zorn and his wife, Emma, bought land close to Mora church and here they moved to a cottage from his maternal grandfather's farm. When Anders and Emma Zorn decided to return to Sweden after several years abroad, they began to enlarge the cottage. Zorngården, the Zorn combined smallholding, farmstead, and residence, was completed in 1910.

Zorngården remains today much as it was at the time of Emma Zorn's death in 1942. It is a fine example of an artist's home from the early years of the 20th century. With inspiration from English and Swedish architecture, it is today an excellent example of the architectural freedom that characterizes the years around 1900.

The main part of Zorngården consists of Zorn's home and a museum with his art, but there are two other museums that also are part of the Zorn Collections. Gammelgården is in the southern part of Mora and consists of some 40 timber houses that Zorn bought to make sure that the old art of building such houses would not be forgotten. Gopsmor, Zorn's refuge when under stress, is in the municipality of Älvdalen and is only open for visitors in July.

Image:Self Portrait by Anders Zorn.jpeg, ''Self portrait'', undated
Image:Selfportrait (Anders Zorn) - Nationalmuseum - 24242.tif, ''Self portrait'', 1882
File:Självporträtt av Anders Zorn 1896.jpg, ''Self Portrait with Model'', 1896
File:Anders Zorn - Self-Portrait - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Self Portrait with Hat'' 1907
File:Anders Zorn - Självporträtt i vargskinnspäls.jpg, ''Self Portrait with Fur'', 1915
File:Zornself.jpg, ''Self-portrait in red'', 1915
File:Anders Zorn - Self Portrait with Faun and Nymph.jpg, Self Portrait with Faun and Nymph (before 1920)

Paintings

While his early works were often brilliant, luminous watercolors, by 1887 he had switched firmly to oils. Zorn was a prolific artist. He became an international success as one of the most acclaimed portrait painters of his era. His sitters included three American Presidents, nobility, the Swedish king and queen and numerous members of high society. Zorn also painted portraits of family members, friends, and self-portraits. Zorn is also noted for his nude paintings. His fondness of painting full-figured women gave rise to the terms ''Zornkulla'' or dalkulla, an unmarried woman or girl from Dalarna, as the women were called in the local dialect of the region where Zorn lived.

File:Freya (1901) by Anders Zorn.jpg, ''Freya'', 1901
File:ZORN på sandhamn.jpg, ''Woman bathing at Sandhamn'', 1906
File:Anders_Zorn_-_Sk%C3%A4rg%C3%A5rdsblomster.jpg, ''Skärgårdsblomster'' (Archipelago flower), 1916
File:Anders Zorn I werners eka-1917.jpg, ''Woman in a boat'', 1917
File:Anders Zorn - I Sängkammaren.jpg, ''In the bedroom'', 1918
File:Anders Zorn - Ateljéidyll.jpg, ''Studio Idyll'', 1918

The paintings have the freedom and energy of sketches, using warm and cool light and shade areas with contrasting areas of warm and cool tones, and an understanding of color contrasts and reflected lights. Zorn's accomplished use of the brush allows the forms and the texture of the painted subject to reflect and transmit light. In addition to portraits and nudes, Zorn excelled in realistic depictions of water, as well as scenes depicting rustic life and customs.

Zorn's palette

Zorn was known to use a basic color palette consisting of Lead White (Flake White), Yellow Ochre, Vermilion and Ivory Black. This limited color palette shows tremendous range in terms of color mixing. A large variety of tonal ranges are possible with this palette, a very important development for portrait painting. The color palette can also be used in still life and landscape painting under certain circumstances. The most striking aspect is that a kind of olive green color is possible to obtain by mixing Ivory Black and Yellow Ochre, as Ivory Black is bluish in nature.

Other major works

*''Martha Dana (later Mrs. William Mercer)'' (1899) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
*''George Peabody Gardner'' (1899) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
* '' A Portrait of the Daughters of Ramón Subercaseaux'' (1892), Private collection
*''Traveling companion (Mr. Charles Deering)'' (1904) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Works

Image:Zorn19131.jpg, ''Castles in the Air'', 1885
File:Our Daily Bread (Anders Zorn) - Nationalmuseum - 24125.tif, '' Our Daily Bread'', 1886, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm
File:Anders Zorn An Algerian man and boy looking across Bay of Algiers.jpg, ''Man and boy in Algiers'', 1887
File:Une premiere av Anders Zorn 1888.jpg, '' En premiär'', 1888
File:Outdoors (Anders Zorn) - Gothenburg Museum of Art - GKM 0256.tif, ''Outdoors'', 1888
File:Zorn Anders Valsen.jpg, ''Waltz'', 1891
File:Anders Zorn - A Portrait of the Daughters of Ramon Subercasseaux.jpg, '' A Portrait of the Daughters of Ramón Subercaseaux'', 1892
Image:Zorn123134.jpg, '' Omnibus I'', 1892
File:Anders Zorn, An Irish Girl, 1894, NGA 11339.jpg, ''An Irish Girl'', 1894, National Gallery of Art
File:Midsommardans.jpg, '' Midsummer Dance'', 1897
Image:Stickande_kulla_av_Anders_Zorn_1901.jpg, ''Dalecarlian Girl Knitting. Cabbage Margit'', 1901
File:Anders Zorn - Hins Anders (1904).jpg, ''Hins Anders'', fiddler or spelman, 1904 (Thiel Gallery)
Image:A Musical Family (Anders Zorn) - Nationalmuseum - 18954.tif, ''A Musical Family'', 1905
File:Överförd till Riksdagen, Dans i Gopsmor (Anders Zorn) - Nationalmuseum - 85527.tif, ''Dance in Gopsmor'', 1906
File:Girls from Dalarna Having a Bath (Anders Zorn) - Nationalmuseum - 18642.tif, ''Girls from Dalarna Having a Bath'', 1906
Image:Anders Zorn - Ols Maria.JPG, ''Ols Maria'', 1918

See also

*Bruno Liljefors
* Zorn Collections

References

Other sources

*Birnbaum, Britta (1985). ''Paintings at Nationalmuseum''. (Stockholm: Nationalmuseum)
*Lidbeck, Sven (2007). ''Anders Zorn Etchings – Catalogue Raisonné 2007''. (Stockholm: Zorn Gallery)
*"Anders Zorn in the Gilded Age", PBS biography ( Colorado Public Television), one hour, 2013.
* Oliver Tostmann, ed., ''Anders Zorn: A European Artist Seduces America'' (Boston: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2013)

ArtGraphica biography

Further reading

*Asplund, Karl. ''Anders Zorn: His Life And Work'' (edited By Geoffrey Holme The Studio, Ltd. 1921)
* Facos, Michelle, ''Swedish Impressionism and Its Boston Champion: Anders Zorn and Mrs. Gardner'' (Boston: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1993)
*Facos, Michelle, “Anders Zorn and English Art,” ''The Nationalmuseum Bulletin'' (Spring 1994) vol. 18, no. 1: 58–67
*Laurvik, John Nilsen ''Anders Zorn'' (F. Keppel. 1913)
*Engstrom, Albert ''Anders Zorn'' (Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Forlag. 1928) Swedish
*Boethius, Gerda ''Anders Zorn;: An international Swedish artist, his life and work'' (Stockholm: Nordisk Rotogravyr, 1962) Swedish
*Hagans, William and Willow ''Zorn In America: A Swedish Impressionist of the Gilded Age'' (Swedish American Historical Society, 2009) English

External links

*
Zorn Collections
*
*Listing of 289 Zorn prints with reference numbers and many with images a
Artists ArchiveZorngården houseAnders Zorn exhibition catalogsAnders Zorn: Sweden's Master Painter
at National Academy of Design, 2014
''Anders Zorn in the Gilded Age''
video trailer

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zorn, Anders
1860 births
1920 deaths
19th-century Swedish painters
20th-century Swedish painters
20th-century male artists
20th-century printmakers
Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
Orientalist painters
Portrait painters
People from Mora Municipality
Swedish Impressionist painters
St Ives artists
Swedish printmakers
Swedish male painters
19th-century male artists