Olga Bratt
1892
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 19.7 × 13.8 cm (7 13/16 × 5 7/16 in.); Sheet: 37.1 × 24.3 cm (14 5/8 × 9 5/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
55345
Art Historical Context
Anders Zorn’s 1892 etching *Olga Bratt* captures the refined elegance of its subject with remarkable economy of line. A leading Swedish artist of the late nineteenth century, Zorn was celebrated across Europe and America for both his paintings and his prints. By the 1890s he had already established himself as a master etcher, using the medium to explore portraiture with the same vitality he brought to oil and watercolor. Executed on ivory laid paper, the small plate (roughly 20 × 14 cm) demonstrates Zorn’s signature technique: swift, confident strokes that suggest form, light, and texture wit...
About the Artist
Anders Zorn · 1860–1920
Anders Zorn (1860–1920), one of Sweden's most celebrated artists, was born on February 18 in Utmeland near Mora in Dalarna, and raised on his maternal grandparents' farm in the nearby hamlet of Yvraden. Displaying prodigious talent from a young age, he attended school in Mora Strand until age twelve, followed by secondary grammar school in Enköping, where he excelled in drawing people and horses. ...