Beschreibung:

ANDERS ZORN 1860-1920 Kärleksnymf / Love Nymph Signed and dated Zorn London 1885. Water colour and gouache on paper, 106,5 x 64,5 cm, with frame made by the artist 159,5 x 114,5 cm. PROVENANCE Ordered by Ernst Morris Bratt, Göteborg Bought by Edvard Casparsson on the Opponent exhibition, autumn 1885 Bought by present owner´s family after the death of Edvard Casparssons in 1923 EXHIBITED Galerie Moderne, Royal Academy, 1885 (unreliable information, possibly the painting at Harpsund) The Opponent exhibition, Blanch´s konstsalong, Stockholm autumn 1885 Gammalt och Nytt, Uppsala 1906, nr 26 Exhibition arranged by Arfvedssons konsthandel, Stockholm, Stora hotellet 1933 Zorn MCMLXXXIX, Zornmuseet, Mora 1989 Anders Zorn Kunsthalle zu Kiel 1989, catalogue no 9 Anders Zorn Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, München 1989-1990, catalogue no 9 Anders Zorns målning Kärleksnymf, Zornmuseet, Mora 2005 Zorns mästerverk, Zornmuseet, Mora 2010 Zorns mästerverk, Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm 2010-2011 LITERATURE Ernst Malmberg: Larsson - Liljefors - Zorn - En återblick, Stockholm 1919, omnämnd page 89 Tor Hedberg: Anders Zorn del I, Ungdomstiden, SAK, Stockholm 1923, page 63 Gerda Boëthius: Zorn, Stockholm 1949, pages 104, 149, 150, 165, 208 and 233, compare water colour studies 1884-1885, illustrations 8-10 Hans Henrik Brummer: Zorn - Svensk målare i världen, Stockholm 1975, mentioned on page 22, see illustrations page 22 Jens Christian Jensen, red.: Anders Zorn 1860-1920, Kiel 1989, illustration 9 Hans Henrik Brummer: Till ögats fröjd och nationens förgyllning - Anders Zorn Stockholm 1994, page 80 and onward, illustrated page 82 Birgitta Sandström: Anders Zorns målning Kärleksnymf, Mora 2005, illustrated on the cover and page 29 Johan Cederlund, red.: Zorns mästerverk, Malmö 2010, page 36, illustrated page 37 In March 1885, Anders Zorn was commissioned to paint a picture that later became known as The Love Nymph. It is unique in Zorn´s oeuvre, primarily on account of its motif, but also due to the story behind it. At that time, Zorn was staying in London but was preparing to travel home to Stockholm. However, the trip back was repeatedly postponed as he wanted to complete The Love Nymph before he left. In June 1885, he was finally ready to make the journey from London to Gothenburg, with the painting safely stowed in his luggage. An idea that had been floating around in his head for a long time had finally been transformed into a painting. It all started in 1876, when Julius Kronberg exhibited his large and hugely admired work Nymph and fauns at the Swedish National Museum. The painting presents a full-bodied female figure reclining on yellow drapes, being spied upon by a group of covetous fauns - set against a background of rich, lush greenery. One of the people waiting patiently in the long queues was Anders Zorn a first-year student at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. After seeing the fascinating motif, he found it hard to shake it out of his mind. Three years later he was granted permission by the museum to copy Kronberg´s painting. This was one of the few times - perhaps the only time ever - that he copied the work of another artist. In Madrid, Zorn´s thoughts turned once again to a nymph motif, and in May he wrote to his former teacher, the conservative historical painter Georg von Rosen: "I have now [...] started work on a large allegorical canvas, and the work gives me the same pleasure as tasting forbidden fruit". In a letter sometime later to his fiancée Emma Lamm, he expressed himself a little more guardedly: "I am working tirelessly on my love story, and it is beginning to develop very favourably. It is somewhat in the style of Kronberg, a goddess or nymph reclining on delightful drapes, inviting love to the greatest possible extent. With her right hand, she is showing a little devil by her right shoulder where to shoot his arrow: straight at the viewer. Another little chap by her side is working busily