Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Recollections of Zorn

Shall we start today with a couple of paintings by Anders Zorn (1860-1920), and a couple of quotes about him?


"A man who has always loved his work as well as Zorn and who has that dogged determination that surmounts all obstacles we must readily believe, when he says that he has never yet given up a painting once started. Even when he worked in the difficult watercolor medium, and although he frequently had mishaps of all kinds during the course of painting — as, for instance, when he was painting at one of the London docks, and his stretcher with the mounted painting which was pretty nearly completed blew into the Thames, and a boat-man fished it up with a boathook which he nonchalantly stuck right through the paper — even then, with the painting torn and blurred, he patched it up and finished it."

"In the summer he casts loose the hawsers of his splendid sailing yacht and starts for a cruise, sometimes across the Baltic to Finland or Russia, but mostly round the long coast of Sweden. And wherever he finds a place to suit his fancy he casts his anchor and commences his work, in the morning fishing or hunting, in the afternoon painting."
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6 comments:

  1. broker12July 8, 2014 at 8:59 AM

    Now that's what I call "The Life."

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  2. Tom HartJuly 8, 2014 at 1:19 PM

    Broker says exactly what I was thinking. That's the life! Similarly, I often think of the time that Sargent spent in the Cotswolds, especially, Broadway, in the summer: painting mixed with a healthy dose of good friends, pretty countryside and good eating. Heaven. (See Sargent at Broadway - sadly out of print, but available used.)

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  3. Keith ParkerJuly 8, 2014 at 2:32 PM

    That first painting reminds me so much of your painting of Gideon escaping from Posiedos James. Something about the water and general mood...

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  4. UnknownJuly 8, 2014 at 4:01 PM

    If you want to read about Sargent at Broadway (where he painted Carnation, Lily,Lily, Rose), then get hold of a copy of John Singer Sargent Figures and Landscapes, 1883-1900 by Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray.

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  5. Tom HartJuly 8, 2014 at 4:12 PM

    That's true, Marian. It's another good source. But I just want to put in an expanded plug for Sargent at Broadway (by Stanley Olson) It's completley devoted to that period of Sargent's career, and is unparalleled in that respect, imho. For someone interested in that phase, I can't recommend it strongly enough. It would have to be obtained used, or from a library though.

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  6. BethJuly 9, 2014 at 1:31 AM

    That is the kind of determination I want to have!

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