Anders Zorn
7 3/4 x 5 1/2 in
with Delteil’s Le Peintre- Graveur lettering at the top. Published 1909 in Volume IV,
total edition of 400 unsigned. On cream laid paper. Of humble origins, the illegitimate son of a German brewer and a Swedish country girl, Zorn grew up on his grandparents’ farm, near Mora. Educated locally, at the age of fifteen he went to Stockholm as a student at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.
He obtained international success as a painter, sculptor and etcher, gaining special celebrity in the United States which he visited seven times, painting the portraits of three Presidents.
Zorn learnt the practicalities of the etching process in London with fellow Swede Axel Haig in 1882, though his inspiration came from Rembrandt. Zorn had a collection of 180 Rembrandt etchings and in later years he had a cabinet, designed by himself, reserved for housing only two artists’ etchings, Rembrandt’s and his own. Billy Mason was etched in Zorn’s Chicago studio on Zorn’s fourth visit to the U.S.A.
Mason served two periods of office as Senator for Illinois. He also is said to be the originator of a style of waistcoat particularly suited to stout people and warm weather.