Summer Delight

Today we present a delightful painting by the Swedish artist, Anders Zorn, who was born in Mora, Sweden, between the lakes of Siljan and Orsasjön. He studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm from 1875 to 1880, and then spent time travelling in Europe, painting watercolors and society portraits in London, Paris, and Madrid.

The painting depicts the artist's wife, Emma Zorn, standing in a white dress and hat, waiting on the edge of wooden pier beside the water, as their friend Carl Gustav Dahlström approaches in a rowing boat. The reflective glassy surface of the water is rippling in a breeze, under cloudy grey skies. Everything looks as if the work was made in oil paint, showing Zorn's skill as a watercolorist. The work was painted in Dalarö, just after the couple had returned from honeymoon. The completed watercolor captures a fleeting moment, and shows influence from the works of the French Impressionists that Zorn had seen while in Paris, but with a distinctively austere Scandinavian palette.

Beautiful painting. I hope you're having a calm end of the week!

P.S. The theme of water surface proved to be a popular challenge for artists – see another mesmerizing take on Scandinavian landscape by Kitty Kielland. <3

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