Are you a painter? No, I’m Zorn!

Sweden was knocked out of Euro 2020 tonight having been beaten by Ukraine 1-2. Sadly it means no more yellow football shirts around about town. In the meanwhilst, England beat Germany 2-0 at Wembley and the behaviour of the English fans demonstrates why I’ve gone off football. Booing the German national anthem was bad enough, but the awful things said about a young German girl crying at the loss and being comforted by her father, were just inhuman. This can’t be because of Brexit. This is just hate.

But enough of that. Today I visited the National Gallery and went to the Zorn exhibition.

I’d never heard of Zorn, which is surprising really given he was one of the greatest portrait painters of his time. And his paintings are just incredible.

Actually, I’ve been wanting to see the exhibition for a while but, every time I check for tickets, they’ve sold out. Then, on Sunday night, I found one. It was a bit later than I usually go (13:15) but at least I’d get to see it. I’m very glad I did.

Anders Zorn (1860-1920) was born in Sweden but became a man of the world, gaining international fame for his wonderful paintings. He painted three American presidents, industrialists, King Oscar II and many brewery workers.

He started working in watercolour.

He married Emma Lamm in 1885. Emma was the business side of the partnership. While Anders painted the greats of the world, she would seek out contacts and commissions. They were the perfect couple.

They worked in England for a bit (around Richmond), Spain, France, Italy and the US. And he didn’t just paint portraits. Some of his works featured ordinary people going about their ordinary lives.

You can see the whole process for making flat bread in the painting above. It also features various Zorn family members. He used his mum and grandma as models.

I particularly like his use of different light in this painting. This was something he worked on in Paris where he painted prostitutes in doorways and workers on omnibuses. This gave him the chance to use both inside and outside, natural and man made, light sources.

His father was a Master Brewer, so Anders painted a lot of scenes featuring brewery workers engaged in bottling and brewing. These paintings are glimpses into the real world of the late 19th, early 20th centuries.

I loved this exhibition. His paintings are so real. He paints emotion and movement, power and joy, so deftly. I’m glad I now know of this great artist.

And the title comes from an encounter in London. A woman asked if he was a painter and he replied, with great confidence, “No, I am Zorn!” Her response is not recorded.

I also had time to visit the top floor of the museum and indulge in some early Swedish art works, but I’ll write about that tomorrow.