Portrait Study of a Man
1901
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
76.2 × 63.5 cm (30 × 25 in.); Framed: 114.3 × 101.6 × 4.5 cm (45 × 40 × 1 3/4 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
75980
Art Historical Context
Anders Zorn's *Portrait Study of a Man (1901), an oil on canvas measuring 76.2 × 63.5 cm, captures the Swedish master's mastery of light and human form during his international peak. Born in 1860, Zorn was a leading figure in late 19th- and early 20th-century Realism renowned for his fluid brushwork and ability to render skin tones and fleeting expressions with remarkable immediacy. By 1901, after gaining fame in Europe and America—where he painted figures like President Theodore Roosevelt—Zorn had honed a direct, alla prima technique, applying paint wet-on-wet to evoke vitality and naturalism...
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. ...