It is set to become one of the major exhibitions of the year in Madrid, and with good reason: Anders Zorn. Traveling the world, remembering the land is the major retrospective with which the Mapfre Foundation (Paseo Recoletos, 23) is highlighting the work of one of the most sought-after portraitists of his time, but who was eventually relegated to the background by art historians, hidden behind the fascination with the avant-garde.
The Swede (1860-1920) stood out from an early age for his ease in handling a wide variety of techniques: watercolor, oil painting, sculpture, and engraving. This versatility, together with his talent and his travels around the world—Spain, Algeria, Paris, London, and the United States—gave his career such international prominence that he became the most outstanding Swedish painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
One of his most celebrated facets, as we mentioned, was that of portraitist—among some of his most notable models were U.S. presidents Howard Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Grover Cleveland—and interacting with monarchs, aristocrats, bankers, and other personalities of European and American society became part of his daily life.
He also, of course, stood out for his ability to interact with other artists of his time. If some of his paintings seem to have a Sorolla-esque air about them, it is because they do: Zorn maintained a close friendship with the Valencian artist and other Spanish painters, such as the Catalan Ramón Casas.
Cosmopolitan, but with his heart in his homeland
Despite the miles he traveled, for Zorn, the Swedish region of Dalecarlia—where he was born—always occupied a central place in his work, capturing traditions and crafts, festivals, and local clothing as a form of resistance to industrialization.
He went even further than his own painting, according to the Mapfre Foundation, by promoting “various initiatives aimed at preserving and promoting the rural culture of Dalecarlia,“such as organizing folk music and dance competitions and creating Gammelgård, an open-air museum that came to house some forty wooden cabins typical of the region.
Exhibition opening hours and prices
General admission is €5, and the exhibition can be visited during the following hours:
- Mondays (except holidays) from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
- Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
- Sundays and holidays from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.