Swedish Venuses: Dalecarlian girls having a sauna by Anders Zorn

Dalecarlian girls having a sauna 1906

Anders Zorn was almost certainly the finest painter that Sweden has ever produced and although he is not very well known in the UK he has a stronger following in the United States, where he painted three presidents and many society portraits. But it is for his splendid nudes of local girls from in and around his hometown of Mora that we include him here.

Reflections 1889

Anders Leonardsson (he didn't take his father's name of Zorn until later) was born in Yvraden, Mora in Dalecarlia on February 16th 1860. His father was a German brewer helping to set up a brewery in Uppsala which is where he met Ander's mother (they never married). His father died when he was 12 and Zorn inherited some money which helped pay for his education.

Helga 1917

From the age of 15 until he was 21 he studied art in Stockholm. Initially he concentrated on watercolours but having found fame by winning a prize at a student show in 1881 he travelled to London the following year. For the next five years he spent a lot of time in Britain, although he travelled to Spain and Portugal too. In 1885 he stayed in St Ives and came under the influence of a number of artists there, including the American Edward Simmons who helped him learn more about oil painting. From this time he painted almost exclusively in oils.

Frileuse 1894

By the end of the 1880s he was successfully exhibiting in Paris and moved in a social circle which included Prinz Eugen. He was based in Paris until 1886 but always spent some of the year back in Mora where he built a home. He travelled to New York and found a number of wealthy patrons for many of whom he painted portraits. He continued to visit the US and many other places, including Poland, Russia and Turkey, but always returning regularly to Sweden, spending the summers sailing the Swedish archipelago in his yacht.

Le tub 1888

When in Sweden he actively encouraged the Swedish folk movement transforming the simplicity of Dalecarlian life into a Swedish national self-image which persists to this day. His watercolour Le tub really defines tha palate of the simple Swedish folk interior.

Latterly he produced more and more etchings which show enormous skill in depicting light and shade with relatively few lines. Having been in ill health some time Anders Zorn died on 22nd August 1922.

In Werner's rowing boat 1917

Zorn produced many fine nudes of the strapping local girls in Dalecarlia even gaining some notoriety for frequently taking women out in boats so he could pose them by Lake Siljan.

Zorn had a wonderful ability to render water, even in etchings, and it is no surprise that many of his girls are depicted by the shore.

We think Zorn deserves to be better known and what better advertisement for his skill than his lush Swedish girls. His Dalecarlian girls having a sauna (1906) catches the heat of the environment perfectly and the warm glow of the (invisible) brazier. We saw this painting on a visit to the National Gallery in Stockholm last year and was immediately impressed by it. Although we have to admit that although there is a great mythology about the erotic appeal of the sauna (especially from non sauna nations!) in Agent Triple P's limited experience they are just far too hot to enjoy; much better to enjoy them vicariously through Anders Zorn's sensitive brush.

Thanks to A for some of the background in this piece (and indeed showing Agent Triple P the painting in the first place).

Self portrait with a model 1896

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Draped Venus: Pomegranates and others by Albert Moore

Lillies

Albert Moore (4 September 1841 – 25 September 1893) was a lesser known Victorian classicist painter whose work largely featured draped women in classical or medieval settings.

He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1857 but his major paintings started around ten years later. He was skilled in the decorative arts designing tiles, wallpaper and stained glass. Moore produced many murals, notably at Coombe Abbey which saw the beginning of his classical style. His love for decoration is evident from the busy backgrounds of his paintings which dominate in such a way that his paintings can seem claustrophobic as the pictures often just contain figures against a wall who blend into the background.

The Dreamers

Many of his women lounge around langourously but his use of colour, which tends to cover a fairly narrow palate, never suggests the bright light and Mediterranean heat the poses seem to suggest (cf JW Godward). In his picture The Dreamers the cream colours and soft tones never seem to capture the eye, the effect being to induce the same sort of ennui that the three girls (actually one model in three poses- there is no attempt to differentiate them) display. Unlike Alma-Tadema or Lord Leighton there is never a story behind his paintings they are pictures for their own sake, not much more than the wallpaper he designed for William Morris.

The White Symphony: Three Girls 1867 by JM Whistler

Moore was a great influence on James McNeill Whistler who was initially much influenced by his classicism. Whistler's painting, The White Symphony: Three Girls follows the composition of Moore's 1866 painting Pomegranates very closely.

Pomegranates 1866

Moore's greates talent was in painting drapery and he spent long hours practising his skills in this area.

Silver 1886

As a result he produced some splendid peek-a-boo maidens in see through clothes but all within the realms of respectability because of their classical settings.

A Workbasket 1879

Because of the prevalence of drapery in his paintings his nudes look even more naked, as if they are, indeed, missing something.

A Venus 1869

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