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Anders Zorn
(Feb.18, 1860, Mora - Aug.22, 1920, Mora, Sw.) Swedish Oil Painting Artist Biography.
Anders Zorn entered the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm at the age of 15. As a young boy he had shown an unusual artistic ability and attention was drawn to the horses and human figures he carved in wood. He planned to become a sculptor but soon painting prevailed. Several members of Stockholm society now turned to Zorn with commissions. In August 1881, Zorn went abroad to study and to try to earn enough money to support a family. The next four years he spent mostly in England and Spain. During these years his style matured. He began to study the appearance of water, how its surface fluctuated and reflected.
Anders Zorn spent the winter of 1887-88 in St Ives in Cornwall. This was an artistic turning point for Zorn. He began to paint in oils and the second oil painting he made, A Fisherman in St Ives, was a definite success. It was exhibited in the Paris Salon in 1888 and bought by the French state. In the spring of 1888, the Zorns settled in Paris, which became their home for eight years. This period coincided with some of the high points of his artistry. From 1889 to 1894 he produced a number of works which earned him a prominent position in the Parisian art world. This position was confirmed during the Paris World Fair in 1889. The 29-year-old Zorn was awarded the French Legion of Honor and was asked to paint his self portrait for the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
It was primarily his skill as a portrait painter that gained Zorn international acclaim. The model's surroundings were important, Zorn believed that a portrait should be painted in an environment that was natural for the model. An artificial studio environment was not to his taste.
At about the same time that Zorn moved to Paris he began working with the motif that he became renowned for, the nude. The movement of water and the reflection of light on its surface had long fascinated him. Now he further complicated the situation by placing a model beside or in the water. Some of the first works he completed in this genre are Frileuse and In Werner's Rowing Boat.
In 1893, Zorn was chosen as the superintendent of the Swedish art exhibition and traveled to the States. This first trip to the United States was also of great importance for his art, he would make a total of six more trips. The trip high points were the commissions to portray American presidents, Grover Cleveland and his wife (1899, National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC) and William Taft (1911, The White House). He made an etching of Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. One of the benefits of the presidential portraits was the number of commissions that Zorn received afterwards in the USA. The majority of these more than one hundred oil paintings are still privately owned, but there are also good works by Zorn in several museums.
In 1896 the Zorns decided to move home to Sweden. The move to Mora from Paris also resulted in a change of motif for Zorn. He did many paintings illustrating Mora and its residents. The oil portrait commissions took a lot of his artistic energy. He developed a concise treatment of detail and a more sweeping brushstroke than earlier. By now his reputation as a skilled portrait artist had reached the upper classes. Various members of the Swedish royal family posed for Zorn. He was internationally famous as one of the best genre and portrait painters in Europe at the end of the 19th century.
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Studio Idyll
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Frileuse
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In Werner's Rowing Boat
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