Anders Zorn

Ebiltsgard, Orust, Sweden 
Sale: Norden Auktioner, Stockholm, November 30, 1995, lot 214
Sale: Bukowskis, Stockholm, May 26, 2003, lot 161, illustrated
Sale: Christie's, London, June 15, 2005, lot 169, illustrated
Acquired from the above sale

Stockholm, Konstföreningen, Anders Zorn-Utsällningen, 1912

Gerda Boëthius, Anders Zorn-Tecknaren, Malaren, Etsaren, Skulptören, Stockholm, 1949, pp. 447 and 551 (under no. 1906)
Hans Henrik Brummer, Zorn - Självbiografiska anteckningar, Stockholm, 1982, pp. 142, 231-233
Birgitta Sandström, Anders Zorn - Självbiografiska Anteckningar, Stockholm, 2004, p. 227

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This picture is in very good condition. It is still on its original stretcher. The paint layer is clean, varnished and retouched. Retouches are only in the background on both sides of the head, where some separation cracking had developed. This kind of cracking is quite typical in paint layers featuring lush and deep color such as this. The restoration is well applied and the work should be hung as is.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Anders Zorn's technical virtuosity, personal vivacity and instinct for color and composition caught the attention of a dedicated international audience.  He was praised in his native Sweden and greatly esteemed in London, Paris and America, earning substantial commissions at a time when society portraiture was a competitive, elevated and fashionable discipline.  Zorn, like his contemporaries John Singer Sargent, Giovanni Boldini, James McNeill Whistler, Joaquín Sorolla and William Merritt Chase, among many others, chronicled and celebrated the great luminaries of the era; their efforts provide us with a phenomenal visual archive of an elite group who represented the optimistic and enthusiastic spirit of their generation.

In the present work, Zorn has portrayed the Swedish Diplomat and King's Chamberlain, Harald Bildt. The son of diplomat Carl Bildt and his American wife Liljan Moore, Harald Bildt was born in England in 1876 but spent his childhood in Rome. He was employed by the Swedish Foreign Ministry in 1899 and worked as an attaché, a counsellor and First Secretary around the world,  including Cairo, Rome and Buenos Aires. The present portrait was painted 1908, after Bildt received the medal of the Order of Knights (Riddartecknet), which was founded by the Spanish King Carlos III. In 1912 he was appointed a Chamberlain of the Swedish Royal King (Kammarherren).

Although this work is carefully composed, Zorn lends a feeling of improvisation through his free-form brushwork and by creating the impression of having captured the subject at a glance. The artist Axel Reinhold Lingholm described the artist's way of working: “It is no paradox when I say that Zorn painted carefully, he painted quickly. Each brushstroke was precisely calculated before being executed. First the hand described the necessary motion in the air, and then the stroke was performed with style and confidence. Despite alterations caused by the model’s movements, Zorn never painted anything, not the least thing, haphazardly” (as quoted in Johan Cederlund, Hans Henrik Brummer, Per Hedström, James A. Ganz, Anders Zorn, Sweden’s Master Painter, exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2013, p. 17).