Sold at Auction: Anders Zorn

(b Mora 18 Feb 1860; d Mora 22 August 1920) Swedish painter, sculptor, engraver, draughtsman. Exhibiting great artistic interest and talent as a child, Anders Zorn attended the fine arts academy in Stockholm in 1875. After leaving the academy in 1881 he began traveling extensively to such places as Spain, Africa, and the United States, and lived in London and Paris. It was in Paris that he studied the work of French Impressionists, who influenced his painting technique seen in the quick brushwork and vibrant light of his paintings. A highly social figure, Zorn became friends with well known artists such as Auguste Rodin and Max Liebermann and painted the portraits of esteemed and wealthy figures in European and American society, including American president Grover Cleveland in 1899. In 1892 he settled in Mora where he painted scenes of rustic Swedish life and female nudes while keeping a studio in Stockholm where he continued to create portraits. Highly esteemed both in his home country and abroad, he exhibited at such shows as Exposition Universelle and the Venice Biennale and was a member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts.