ANDERS ZORN. By the fire/"By the fireplace”.

Oil on canvas pasted on panel, 51,5 x 34,5 cm. Signed and dated Zorn -97.

PROVENANCE
Consul Sven Wennerth, Malmö
Stockholms Auktionsverk, Classic Dec 2012 auction number: 2360
Private collection, Värmland.

LITERATURE
Art in Swedish Homes, Part I, Gothenburg 1942, listed and illustrated in black and white under collection no. 566. Consul Sven Wennerth, p 343.
Gerda Boëthius, Zorn: The cartoonist, painter, etcher, sculptor, Stockholm 1949, mentioned in the catalogue of works in 1897, page 548, entitled “At the stove” but with incorrect measurements (55 x 74 cm)

When Anders Zorn painted “By the Fire” in late autumn 1897, he had recently returned to Mora from Lund, where he executed two portrait commissions for Professors Fahlbeck and Quennerstedt (Lund University collections). Prior to that, he had spent an extended period of time in St. Petersburg on the occasion of a planned exhibition there. The stay in the Russian city did not result in any artistic production at all, and we must therefore assume that upon returning to Mora Zorn felt a certain withdrawal from painting what he really loved to paint at that time; the people and environments of his native region.

In the winter of 1897-98, Zorn made two versions in oil of interiors with hills by a fireplace. The current “By the Fire” is a close-up study of a young woman, who, wearing her thick kasung (fur-lined winter jacket), sits pressed against the stovetop, as if she were warming herself by the open fire. Her face is rosy and cheerful and she seems to enjoy sitting as a model in the comfortable, warm cabin. The subject has been quickly and skillfully rendered by the artist with hasty, confident brushstrokes. The colorite is limited to his characteristic scale of zinc white, gray, brown and red, with the fiery yellow fire as the impactful accent. That same winter (around the New Year 1898), Zorn also completed the painting “At the Sisteln”. It has a similar theme, but there the artist has backed a few steps into the room and depicts the cottage interior, the fireplace and the model from a few meters away. The color scale is the same in both paintings, but the latter is more detailed. While the content of “By the Bonfire” is concentrated on the model and her expressive face and posture, “By the Fireplace” primarily gives an insight into the interior of the cabin and the everyday chores of the hill. In Gerda Boëthius' extensive monograph on the artist, the paintings have been given the titles “At the stove” and “At the fireplace” respectively. Med
In view of the considerable differences in the treatment of the subject, and in order to reduce the risk of confusion, we choose to use the title given for the painting in question in the publication “Konst i svenska hem”, where it is also depicted.

For further information and condition report, please contact cecilia.berggren@auktionsverket.com.