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A Fisherman
By Anders Zorn (1860-1920)
In the Luxembourg, Paris
Anders Zorn is a consummate artist who delights in overcoming technical difficulties. His career has been as remarkable as it has been triumphant. The peasant boy of Delorne, in Sweden, carved animals in wood on his native pastures, and afterwards coloured them with fruit juice. At school, even, his natural talent showed itself in the portraits which he painted without instruction, and when, in later years, he began to paint little pictures of the scenes around his home, the sense of character and of form acquired in these early days manifested itself. One day he painted the portrait of a girl in mourning, and at once he gained a reputation which brought him quantities of commissions. With the money he earned he left home for a tour in Italy and Spain, finally reaching London in 1885 and setting up a studio in a fashionable quarter there. Commissions came quickly once more, and in his intervals of leisure he roamed through Europe and into Africa, as well as through England, seeking fresh inspiration and developing his comprehensive talents. He studied river scenes in England and wave effects in Sweden, and in the latter study he gave proof of his capacity for solving technical problems and of translating his mastery into the work of his brush. The task of painting the sea demands a quick eye and hand, because its incessant ebb and flow leaves no time for detailed study. Zorn attacked the subject again and again, until he had conquered it, and he transferred the sea to his canvas with that fresh, dexterous touch which is characteristic of his work.
"A Fisherman" was painted at St. Ives, in Cornwall, and is none the less interesting to English folk because it gives a Swedish master's impression of a subject which has inspired so many of their own contemporary painters.
From the book "Famous Paintings" printed in 1913.
Large files of this public domain print are available at Stock Photos at Songs of Praise
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Online "Name the Painting"
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A Fisherman
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