Anders Zorn: Sweden’s Master Painter

By Johan Cederlund, Hans Henrik Brummer, Per Hedström, and James A. Ganz

Accompanying a major retrospective of Anders Zorn’s work in the United States, this is the first volume to explore the Swedish artist’s entire career in depth.

Anders Zorn (1860–1920) is one of Sweden’s most accomplished and beloved artists. Renowned for his light, expressive watercolors, he attained mastery of the genre at an early age and later applied his techniques to oil painting. Zorn is often compared to the artists John Singer Sargent and Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, contemporaries who also were known for their portraits of high-society figures. Taking up residence in London and then in Paris, Zorn established himself as an international portrait painter, depicting fashionable clients in a style both elegant and relaxed. He became a favorite among wealthy American collectors, bankers, and industrialists who sat for him, including art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner and three US presidents. Though perhaps best known for his portraits, Zorn brought equal skill to painting genre scenes and views of nature.

This handsome volume provides a thorough introduction to the artist and his works, from portraits to landscapes and his famous nudes in the Swedish countryside. Four illustrated essays are accompanied by a chronology, a selected bibliography, an exhibition checklist, and an index.

Authors

Johan Cederlund is director of the Zornsamlingarna (Zorn Collections) in the artist’s hometown of Mora, Sweden. From 2000 to 2006, he served as curator of the art collections at Uppsala University, where he has been associate professor since 2011.

Hans Henrik Brummer is an author, curator, and art historian. He was director of the Zornsamlingarna (1972–1989) and director general for the museum at Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde (1989–2006) and the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (2000–2002).

Per Hedström is director of exhibitions at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. He is the author of Strindberg: Painter and Photographer and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864–1901.

James A. Ganz is curator of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. His recent publications include Arthur Tress: San Francisco 1964 and Rembrandt’s Century.

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