DOI issue:
Nr. 158 (April 1910)
DOI article:Bröchner, Georg: Some notable Swedisch etchers
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19866#0168
Some Notable Swedish Etchers
refuge. In return, the line lends itself obediently present in Zorn's mind. Look at some of his nude
to his every purpose. He can endow it with a women—how he endows their bodies with the
depth, a colour, a force which calls to mind the elasticity of voluptuous life as they stand out, at
tremendous power of the old Spanish master Zorn times, almost luminously, in spite of the absence
early learned to love, and he can make it dance on of colour, against rock or lake, mirrored in
the copper with the most seductive lightness and the placid or softly lapping waters! The human
grace. With the simplest, or rather, perhaps, with form—divine or otherwise—in all its unprudish,
the fewest, means he achieves results of the utmost realistic beauty (Zorn, in the knowledge of his
subtlety in the way of space and distance, of light own artistic strength, looks the world straight
and atmosphere, whether in the open or within and uncompromisingly in the face and works
doors, and the less essential, without being neglected, accordingly, keeping aloof from all mannerism)
is always made fitly to subordinate itself to the has always to him been a frequent and favourite
central aim in view. This accounts for some of motif, both on canvas and on copper, in his
Zorn's strength. It may be noted in this con- etchings, at least, only yielding the premier place
nection that he not only never crowds his etch- to portraiture.
ings, but that he even, broadly speaking, avoids The value Zorn himself attaches to his etchings
the grouping of several persons—the one suffices is evidenced by his doing two or three or even
for him. Notwithstanding the apparently careless four plates of the same subject, when for some
manner in which he disposes of the unessential reason the result of the first does not satisfy him ;
and in spite of his colouristic effectiveness and and he is exceedingly jealous and unrelenting in
power, neither his work in oil nor his etchings can his self-criticism. Many, perhaps most, of his
be claimed by the apostles of impressionism or etchings are done from his paintings or drawings,
modern colour scheming. • which the artist, with the power and verve so
As a matter of fact, the sense of form, the plastic essentially his own, transfers to the copper, in his
aspect, if not always uppermost, is always vividly artistic zeal, it would seem, often without heeding
" KARIN AND ESBJORN " BY CARL LARSSON
II9
refuge. In return, the line lends itself obediently present in Zorn's mind. Look at some of his nude
to his every purpose. He can endow it with a women—how he endows their bodies with the
depth, a colour, a force which calls to mind the elasticity of voluptuous life as they stand out, at
tremendous power of the old Spanish master Zorn times, almost luminously, in spite of the absence
early learned to love, and he can make it dance on of colour, against rock or lake, mirrored in
the copper with the most seductive lightness and the placid or softly lapping waters! The human
grace. With the simplest, or rather, perhaps, with form—divine or otherwise—in all its unprudish,
the fewest, means he achieves results of the utmost realistic beauty (Zorn, in the knowledge of his
subtlety in the way of space and distance, of light own artistic strength, looks the world straight
and atmosphere, whether in the open or within and uncompromisingly in the face and works
doors, and the less essential, without being neglected, accordingly, keeping aloof from all mannerism)
is always made fitly to subordinate itself to the has always to him been a frequent and favourite
central aim in view. This accounts for some of motif, both on canvas and on copper, in his
Zorn's strength. It may be noted in this con- etchings, at least, only yielding the premier place
nection that he not only never crowds his etch- to portraiture.
ings, but that he even, broadly speaking, avoids The value Zorn himself attaches to his etchings
the grouping of several persons—the one suffices is evidenced by his doing two or three or even
for him. Notwithstanding the apparently careless four plates of the same subject, when for some
manner in which he disposes of the unessential reason the result of the first does not satisfy him ;
and in spite of his colouristic effectiveness and and he is exceedingly jealous and unrelenting in
power, neither his work in oil nor his etchings can his self-criticism. Many, perhaps most, of his
be claimed by the apostles of impressionism or etchings are done from his paintings or drawings,
modern colour scheming. • which the artist, with the power and verve so
As a matter of fact, the sense of form, the plastic essentially his own, transfers to the copper, in his
aspect, if not always uppermost, is always vividly artistic zeal, it would seem, often without heeding
" KARIN AND ESBJORN " BY CARL LARSSON
II9