Making in Context : Reconsidering Anders Zorn's Oil Painting Practice

Anders Zorn is one of the most well-known Swedish artists of the late nineteenth century. Born 1860 in the Dalecarlian town of Mora, the artist’s works were renowned and sought-after during his lifetime, both at home and abroad. Ranging in motif from bathing nudes, cosmopolitan urban life and rural genre scenes, towards society portraiture, Zorn’s oeuvre – which is further comprised of a variety of different media such as watercolour, oil painting, etching and sculpture – provides a rich material record that serves to demonstrate the intricacies of his artistic process. The aim of the present thesis is to examine the details of Zorn’s materials and techniques, with specific focus on his oil painting practice. What materials did the artist use to construct his paintings? Did they change over time, or where they consistent throughout his career? What was Zorn’s typical approach towards compositional planning and paint application? Also, how does the artist’s practice relate to the techniques of his contemporaries, such as the French Impressionists or the international cohort of artists known as the juste milieu? In order to answer these questions the study draws upon the empirical methods of technical art history, using analytical techniques such as multispectral photography, x-radiography, x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and paint sample analysis as a means of identifying the various stages of Zorn’s artistic process. In addition to examining the artist’s finished oil paintings, a broad range of both physical and written sources are also consulted, including his remnant studio materials, colourmen’s purchase orders and product catalogues, as well as press clippings of contemporary critics’ reviews. The information provided through these analyses and sources are examined by way of the theoretical concept of materiality, drawing particularly upon the writing of social anthropologists Tim Ingold and Daniel Miller, as well as art historian Michael Yonan. Using this conceptual framework, the study centers on the making of Zorn’s oil paintings, focusing on aspects such as the artist’s training, material conditions, exhibition and market contexts, as well as contemporary aesthetic debates that help explain the details of his practice. The thesis is divided into two parts; the first part examines the details of Zorn’s oil painting practice, and the second focuses on contextualising his technique in relation to his contemporary context. The first part documents specific details such as the artist’s particular choice of supports, grounds and colours. In addition, it discusses his preparatory process, which typically involved the use of pencil drawings and value studies in oil. Finally, the details of Zorn’s paint application are explored, focusing on aspects such as the artist’s use of an ébauche underlayer, his successive build up using shadows and highlights, as well as the particular qualities of his surface facture. Building upon this characterisation of his oil painting practice, part two then goes on to compare Zorn’s paintings with those of other late nineteenth-century painters, starting with a technical juxtaposition with the French Impressionists, followed by an overview of a select number of juste milieu painters, notably Édouard Manet, John Singer Sargent, Giovanni Boldini and Joaquín Sorolla. The remaining sections of part two are devoted to the broader nineteenth-century context, with specific reference to the aesthetic debates surrounding Charles Baudelaire’s concept of modernité (Fr. modernity), as well as Zorn’s particular exhibition and market setting.