ZORN, ANDERS (186o--192o), Swedish artist, was born at Mora, in the province of Dalecarlia, Sweden, on Feb. 18, 186o. He began his artistic career as a water-colourist, adopting the style and tastes of Egron Lundgren under whom he studied. He became well-known in Sweden through the exhibition in 188o of a small girl's head, entitled "Mourning," now in the National Museum, Stockholm. An increasing reputation brought him orders for many portraits and he earned the means to travel. His first trip to Spain greatly advanced his work through contact with vivid colourings in nature and in life. In the three years following he maintained a studio in London and afterwards travelled in eastern Europe and in Algiers. These years saw the best of his water colours, such as "Our Daily Bread," "Gipsy Forge," "Caique Rower," "Algiers Harbour," "Lapping of the Waves," "En premiere," "The Fish Market at St. Ives" and "Rositi Mauri." From 1887 to 1893 he lived chiefly in Paris, though making long visits to Sweden in the summer. In these years he took up oil painting. Also he abandoned the realist manner and became primarily an impressionist and colourist. In 1893 he made his first visit to the United States as Swedish commissioner accom panying that country's art exhibit at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He made six subsequent trips, and painted portraits of many American millionaires as well as of Cleveland, Taft, Roosevelt, Hanna, Hay and others. After 1896 he began to spend more of his time in Mora, where he loved and encouraged the Dalecarlian peasant life and customs. He died there on Aug. 22, 192o.
As a painter Zorn is an excellent example of the matured im pressionistic group. He won renown for his characteristic and picturesque portraits in which, owing to his sensitive study of values, he gives proper play to light and half-tones. In addition to millionaires, international celebrities, and members of royal families, he painted red-cheeked Swedish girls, country peasant women, and old artisans at their work, and some of his best pic tures, such as the studies of his mother in "Mona," of the watch maker "Djos Mats," the smith "Bosl Anders," and the fiddler "Hins Anders," belong in the latter categories. He loved the nude,
especially the play of water on or around the body. "Naked," "After Bathing," "En premiere," "Renaissance," "By Lake Siljan," "Improvised Bath," and "Mother and Daughter" are among the best of these. In later years he turned more and more to Dalecarlian peasant subjects of which should be mentioned "Midsummer Dance," "Dance at Gopsmor," "Vallkulla," "Early Christmas Service" and "Watering the Horses." Zorn's status as an etcher is still in controversy between those who would rank him among the masters and those who feel he has been over-rated. He learned the art from his fellow-country man, Axel Haig, in 1882, but did not do important work in the medium until 1889. At his best, especially in the series of etched portraits of Renan, Anatole France, Proust, Rodin and Verlaine in France, of the Scandinavians Strindberg and Carl Larsson, of Grover Cleveland, Henry Marquand and Senator Mason in Amer ica, of the old artisans of Mora in "Djos Mats," "An Old Sol dier," and "Vicke," and in "Mona" and "The Toast," he shows genius of the highest sort. Of his nudes "Early Morning," "My Model and My Boat," "Edo," "Precipice," "Wet," "Sappho," all enjoyed favour, but he pursued the theme until it became monoto nous, and many of his later plates were quite common in con ception. Zorn also won fame as a sculptor, one of his most popu lar pieces in Sweden being the statute of Gustavus Vasa at Mora (190 I). The "Faun and Nymph," "Morning Bath" and "Broken Pitcher" also show his high ability in this field.
See T. Hedberg, Anders Zorn (1901 and 1910) ; F. Servaes, Anders Zorn (Iwo) ; E. Malmberg, Larsson, Liljefors, Zorn (1919) ; K. Asplund, Anders Zorn: his Life and Work (1921) ; The Etchings of Anders Zorn, introduction and notes by E. M. Lang (1923) ; Anders Zorn (1925) in Modern Masters of Etching series.