The Swedish artist Anders Zorn painted many wonderful paintings, especially portraits, executed with deep psychology and skill. However, since 1880 he began to work in the seemingly frivolous genre of nudes, creating paintings full of unconcealed admiration for the beauty of the girls he saw bathing, which although not always resembled the ancient Greek goddesses with perfect bodies, as was customary in academism, but were much more natural and alive.
Bather
Zorn painted them where he saw them - of course, he didn't peek at the nearest body of water, waiting to enjoy a first-rate nude - he had enough models who were happy to work with such a famous artist, but he tried to paint in such a way that the picture resembled the here-and-now moment adopted in Impressionism, the detached gaze of an invisible photographer who took a snapshot.
Dalarnian girls in a bath
But the painting "Dalarny Girls in the Bath" is somewhat different - instead of nature and the nearest body of water there is a close enclosed space of a bathhouse, and instead of natural natural tones - a riot of colors, saturated and bright. Zorn specifically used mostly yellow ochre and red cadmium, but it does not interfere with the general perception of the painting, because Zorn had plenty of skill, he himself said, in his characteristic straightforward manner: "it takes a lot of skill.
Zorn was always very reverent to his small homeland, the place where he was born - the Swedish province of Dalarna and always almost every year visited there. He bought a plot of land there, moved his grandfather's old house there, renovated and improved it, planted a garden nearby and named the resulting estate Zorngarden.
Alhambra Park
Zorn sincerely appreciated the discreet beauty of the local girls and women and tried to capture it in his paintings, because no local peasant woman could refuse to pose for the famous artist. Perhaps there was not too much refinement in them, but there was plenty of health, cheerfulness and body strength, not unlike the pampered city girls.
Magritte
One of Zorn's best paintings on this subject is Magritte's portrait of a peasant woman, which he painted 3 years after he settled in Zorngarden and, in fact, he sang a type of peasant Swedish beauty - lush blondes in traditional outfits or without them at all, but with invariable red ribbons, with which they do not seem to want to part even in the bath.
After the bath
Zorn has another painting, which is practically a continuation of the first one - there the girls are just resting after all the procedures, or maybe after exhausting posing for the artist. However, the latter is still doubtful: Zorn, unlike Serov, painted very quickly, bringing admiration to all who were lucky enough to observe his artwork.
Summer fun
One day in St. Petersburg, all the students and professors of the Academy of Fine Arts gathered - Zorn had arrived and was preparing to give a master class in quick painting of nudes. He arrived a little late, threw off his beaver coat and began his artwork. He did a few strokes and said he was tired and the show would be postponed until tomorrow. The next day everything was repeated. On the third day only the most persistent gathered, and here they saw the magic - literally in one session the strokes merged into a beautifully painted image, where everything was as it should be. The audience applauded, and Zorn bowed out. It turned out that for those two days he made preliminary calculations in his mind, looked at the model, determined the composition and lighting, and on the third day he was already creating for the public.
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