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Author: Matt_Viinanen, Contributing Editor
 | "I remember walking up to the coffin, surrounded by visiting mourners, lifting up the eyelid to get an alive-like portrait. I did these on grey paper with black and white crayons. My fee was fifteen kronor (about one and a half US dollars)"
In 1880, he produced a portrait that would become crucial to his career - 'In sorrow' -, which landed him the reputation of a highly respected portrait artist and soon found himself in great demand. His chosen profession would, in the late 19th century, become increasingly adapted to a capitalistically controlled art market. Earlier, this had been foremost a field for kingdoms, the church and corporations. Zorn had by now adapted himself to an environment that radically differed from his childhood's. It was inevitable that the distance between Stockholm and Mora grew further apart, in the sense that he could no longer share their conditions of life. When back home, he would wear traditional clothes, and in Stockholm he would don fancy suits and shoes that actually fitted. In the fall of 1880, Zorn for the first time got himself his own studio apartment, located in a part of Stockholm that no longer exists. "My first dead child", crayon, 1878. 11"x14" |
| In his first years at the Academy, Zorn regularly went to church, but as a growing teenager in the nation's capital, with such a vast offering of new, exiting social engagements, that habit changed. Masquerades, hanging out at the proper cafés, smoking cigars, drinking brandy and cognac, ice-skating, dancing ballet and similar such activities now took a larger part of Zorn’s spare time. And there was of course, studies. Zorn was an arduous worker when it came to his art. In 1878 he was admitted as a student to the Academy's higher State secondary school, and in 1879 he received his degree in perspective and anatomy. At this time, Zorn and his fellow students where unpleased with the design of the Academy and its organization. They chose to ignore lectures and lessons by teachers they did not respect. When the founder of the Academy, Mr. Jonas Boklund, died in 1880, relations between the organisation and students council were refined. His successor Mr. Von Rosen, presented a much more disciplined nature of the school and its classes. Zorn was somewhat caught in the middle of this event, and was picked out as a bad example for the rest of the students to observe. The school committee gave Zorn a third and last warning for his nonchalant attitude toward his studies. Zorn officially proclaimed:" - I no longer have anything at all to learn at the Academy, and therefore I shall leave it!"
From his talk with the head of the Academy committee: "I was told how spoiled and ignorant I was and so on... He told me I would return on my knees, begging for mercy and admittance to the Academy again. I couldn't help but think about the scholarship and the three thousand kronor I would receive if I apologised, but then I heard behind me, the sound of fellow students joining me to leave the Academy. Thus, - the uproar against the institute had begun."
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 | "In sorrow"
"I painted the head of a young woman, wearing a black veil, and called it In sorrow before submitting it the pupils show. Professor Boklund, the bitter but benevolent man in charge of the exhibition, had toothache that day and saw me with half-hearted enthusiasm. He said about my painting: "Son, such waste of paper. Put it down on the floor!" The next day however, I was sent after to meet him, and he said: "Son, they want it! They're crazy about it! How much do you want for it?" Staggered by this unexpected turn, I modestly replied "Fifty kronor" (about half a dollar) - "Son, damn you for not asking one hundred and fifty for it! The next day the caretaker came to me with an envelope containing one hundred and fifty kronor. It was from one of the professors who bought it for a friend. A few days later there was a big article in the magazine describing my opus, and how my fortune was made."
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| Engaged, 1881-1885 |
 | On June 2, 1881, Anders Zorn was engaged to Emma Lamm. They had met for the first time on New Years Eve, 1881, whilst painting a portrait of her niece. Emma was the youngest daughter of Henrietta Lamm and wholesale dealer Martin Lamm whose origins lay in Altona, Germany. In 1772 the law made it possible for Jews to immigrate into Sweden and the family did so in the latter years of the eighteenth century.
During this period Emma was living with her mother, a widower of only a few years, in their home in one of Stockholm's more upper class quarters. They spent their summers in the beautiful Dalarö, situated in the archipelago of Stockholm. She was a family girl, brought up to conform to the ways of upper class society. Notwithstanding the privileged liberal and cultivated upbringing, Emma's proclivities never drew her toward any form of creative activity. Oftentimes she would take a very passive and unconditional approach towards the arts and literature, undoubtedly to the advantage of her fiancee. Anders and Emma, photograph from 1884. |
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