Sharon Lorenzo goes to the National Academy to see a Swedish Master.

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 Self-portrait of Anders Zorn (1860-1920)

Founded in 1825, The National Academy is esteemed as one of the nation’s oldest arts organizations, and today it is both an art museum and a school located in the beaux arts townhome of Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington. Built in the gilded era about 1902 with six stories, it has been transformed into art galleries that face onto Fifth Avenue. The Academy has hosted many exhibitions, and additionally it employs 30 professional faculty who conduct classes in painting, sculpture, photography and graphic arts.

This current exhibition is a smashing array of 90 works by the Swedish master Anders Zorn who painted business and political leaders and their families at the beginning of the 20th century along side masters like John Singer Sargent and Joaquin Sorolla from Spain. The story of his life is revealed in the range of works displayed from his early watercolors to his later oil portraits, bronze figures and graphic etchings.  Brought together by Colin Bailey of the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco, he was ably assisted by Barbro Osher, honorary consul general from Sweden, in obtaining the major loans that make this show for two venues so beautiful and diverse.

Zorn had a quiet early life with this mother and grandparents in the small town of Mora in the Dalarna region of Sweden. His mother left the family farm during the summer months to earn money washing bottles in a brewery in Uppsala, Germany. There she met Anders’ father whom she did not marry, but when he passed away he sent his substantial financial net worth to her to enable Anders to attend school. At the age of 15 Anders enrolled in the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm and his career was off to a roaring start. In 1880 this early work was bought by King Oscar II of Sweden.

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In Mourning, 1880 Watercolor

 Shortly thereafter Zorn traveled to Spain and from his first portfolio of work a submission was accepted by the Paris Salon in 1882.  This picture of two cousins is in this exhibition in New York and looks as fresh as the day it was painted.

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The Cousins 1882       Watercolor

 From Spain he traveled to London where he once again was an immediate success. With the knowledge that he could now support a family, he returned to Sweden and married his childhood sweetheart Emma, the daughter of a leading Swedish merchant.  They had a honeymoon in Turkey and continued to travel to Algeria, Italy and Greece. Works such as this watercolor of a local oarsman in Africa illustrate his deep command of this medium.

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Oarsman, 1886 Constantinople, Turkey          Watercolor

 The next year Zorn submitted another artwork to the Salon in Paris of his young wife reading. It was purchased for the permanent collection of the state of France.

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Emma Zorn Reading 1887, Oil on canvas

 1889 was the year of the first major Exposition Universelle in Paris, and Zorn was asked to exhibit some work for which he won a first class medal.   At the age of 29 years, he was inducted into the Legion d’Honneur, the highest honor in the world of art at that time. He continued to work in both watercolor and oil paints, finding there was a ready market for portraits in both media.  This work of 1892 shows the way he used the free flow of watercolor to capture the fluid movement of the model.

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Reveil, Boulevard Clichy, 1892 Watercolor

In 1893, Emma and Anders traveled to the United States for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago commemorating the 400 years since the visit of Christopher Columbus to America.  During this show, he met an art collector from Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and she invited Anders and his wife to be summer guests at her villa in Venice, the Palazzo Barbaro, where he painted Gardner’s portrait for her collection.

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Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice, 1894 Oil on canvas

Zorn made a total of seven trips to the United States and eventually completed two portraits of American presidents, Grover Cleveland and William Howard Taft, one of which still hangs in the White House today.  When asked by John Rockefeller to do his portrait, Zorn replied that he was out of time and had to return to Sweden to celebrate summer fest with his family. He resettled for the duration of his life in his hometown of Mora. He continued to paint until his death in 1920 capturing local scenes of native folk culture that still survive today in the town where his wife Emma left their entire estate to be made into a local museum and national park.

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William Howard Taft, 1911 White House Collection  Oil on canvas

The legacy of Zorn from Europe to the United States is evident in this well- constructed retrospective of his life and work.  A truly international artist, Zorn was one of the leaders of his century. He was able to capture the best of his native land as well as the energy of the new industrial age.  From the halls of our White House to the pastoral audiences of Sweden, Zorn’s work stands as a legacy for artists today to emulate in the perfection of their craft.

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Midsummer Dance, 1897 National Museum, Stockholm   Oil on canvas

 

The National Academy Museum

February 27, 2014 to May 18, 2014

1083 Fifth Avenue, New York