thumb|Anders and Emma Zorn around 1885.

thumb|Reveil (Awakening), the artist's wife

thumb|[[Sommarnöje, 1886. Sweden's highest priced painting ever; sold for 26 million SEK on June 3, 2010.]]

thumb|Emma Zorn, reading, 1887

Anders Leonard Zorn (18 February 1860 – 22 August 1920) was a Swedish artist who attained international success as a painter, sculptor, and etching artist. His 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 in 1920, he established the Swedish literary Bellman Prize.

Family, education and travels

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. He became an international success and one of the most highly regarded painters of his era.

<gallery mode=packed heights=160 caption="Portrait paintings">

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:Frieda Schiff (1876–1958), Later Mrs. Felix M. Warburg.jpg|Portrait Frieda Schiff, 1894, wife of Felix M. Warburg

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

File:Portrait of Elizabeth Sherman Cameron by Anders Zorn.jpeg|Elizabeth Sherman Cameron, 1900

</gallery>

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 an accurate example of an artist's home from the early years of the 20th century. With inspiration from English and Swedish architecture, it stands today as an accurate example of the architectural freedom that characterizes the years around 1900.

upright=3.5|thumb|center|Anders Zorn's atelier at his house, Zorngården in Mora

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.

<gallery mode=packed heights="160px" caption="Self Portraits">

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)

</gallery>

Paintings

While his early works were often 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.

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

<gallery perrow="6" widths="120" heights="160">

File: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:The Tub by Anders Zorn 01.jpg|The Tub (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

File: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

File: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)

File: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

File:Anders Zorn - Ols Maria.JPG|Ols Maria, 1918

</gallery>

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
  • Zorn Collections
  • Zorn Gallery in Stockholm
  • Listing of 289 Zorn prints with reference numbers and many with images at Artists Archive
  • Zorngården house
  • Anders Zorn exhibition catalogs
  • Anders Zorn: Sweden's Master Painter at National Academy of Design, 2014
  • Anders Zorn in the Gilded Age video trailer