Anders Zorn (1860–1920) was born on 18 February 1860 near Mora, in the Swedish province of Dalarna, and grew up on his grandparents’ farm. He studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm, then made his career abroad, above all in Paris and London, as a watercolourist, portrait painter and etcher.
His breakthrough came at the Paris World’s Fair of 1889, where he won a medal and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur. In 1893 he was Sweden’s art commissioner at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. There he met the collector Isabella Stewart Gardner, who became a close friend, and her museum in Boston still holds his portrait of her. He returned to the United States many times and portrayed three American presidents: Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.
Zorn is best known for his portraits, for scenes of the people of Dalarna, and for nudes painted outdoors, often in water and light. He also became one of the most admired etchers of his day. He returned to live in Sweden and died in Mora on 22 August 1920.