Artshare: Anders Zorn

This is him:

Who is this artist?

Anders Zorn

1860-1920

Swedish

Why did I choose this artist?

I chose this artist because I am familiar with his work and have been for a while, but not a lot of people know him as much as I would think. Zorn was an amazing oil/watercolor painter, etcher, and drawer who has Swedish origins. Zorn lived all over Europe but visited the US, the Middle East, and Africa to gain inspiration and to make commissioned paintings.

I chose Zorn's work because I often feel the emotions given off in his paintings and they seem to capture life in an intriguing snapshot. While he has great technique, I never find his paintings too "fussy".

What is his work about?

Zorn liked to paint royalty and presidents, but he also emphasized painting more realistic people such as his family members, friends, and full-figured female models.

What resonates most with you in their work? What challenges you?

Zorn's emphasis on light, contrast in color, and energy all intrigue me, as do the specific people he chooses to paint. I like how intimate some of his pieces are, but the posed ones are also alluring. Zorn was also known to paint something because of a specific feature he was interested in/attracted to. In the painting of the woman fishing on a beach (bottom), Zorn was interested in capturing the blotchy redness of the woman's arms due to her rough work in the water and wind.

Do you see something in their work that you would like to try? If so, what is it?

I would like to try some of the technique in the painting of the woman below and of his self portrait. The strokes of paint that make up the newspaper are visible yet convincing, and the highlights on the jewelry and glass are just well placed white and yellow blotches. I am not doing any figure paintings in my project, but I have chosen paintings for my work that have high contrast between colors.