Studio: international art (38.1906)

Northern Painters and their Homes

GABLE OF MR. F. SCHWARTZ’S HOUSE AT VALBY

further enhances the charm and the effect of the
excellent paintings and other objefs d art which it
contains. Close to Prince Eugen’s house Mr. Boberg
has built his own picturesque house, and the
distinguished sculptor, Ericsson, likewise lives
in beautiful Djurgarden. Mnre. Boberg, who
is a very clever seascapist and who loves the
weird and wild scenery of distant Lofoten,
has had built for herself a small summer
residence at Svolvar, thus no doubt boasting
the world’s most northerly studio and pro-
bably the only one within the Arctic region,
where, she tells me, a not unfriendly bear is
a casual caller.

Otherwise a number of Swedish artists
have turned their backs upon their beautiful
capital and betaken themselves to other
parts, the ancient province of Dalarne having
become the home of quite a cluster of dis-
tinguished painters. Place aux dames—at
Rattvik, the Baroness Emma Sparre owns a
charming house, Solhem by name, built in
the good old Swedish style, heavy beams
forming the principal building material; an
old-time simplicity—at the same time com-
fortable and artistic—prevails in the interior,
and from the open balcony there is a most
delightful view over the waters of the his-

toric lake Siljan ; the Queen Dowager of Italy
and many other distinguished visitors have
eulogised the beauties of Solhem in Baroness
Sparre’s Golden Book. The province of Dalarne,
altogether, is rich in historic associations, and
Dalecarlian men and women, the former for cen-
turies a kind of bodyguard for Sweden, the latter
possessed of most of the virtues which make a
true woman, still cling to many of their old customs
and to their picturesque national dress, each parish
having its own. No wonder that so many painters
have in Dalarne found that promised land, for
which, I suppose, we all sigh, and that Anders
Zorn, himself a Dalar peasant born and bred,
has built his house at Mora, in the midst of his
people, of timber, he tells you with some satisfac-
tion, hailing from his own forest. Zorn’s home, in
a way, symbolises and resembles its master; like
him it is of good honest Dalar stuff, but as his
work adorns the walls of some of the world’s
greatest museums, so the great world has helped
to make his house beautiful within, for besides the
mighty billiard-room, where nothing hides the
smooth Dalar beams, the staircase of a like simpli-
city and hall with the old-time open hearth,
Zorn’s house contains old masters, a profusion of
lovely plate, rare antique furniture, and a variety
of other costly and beautiful things. Zorn, like
all true Swedes, is hospitality itself, and at his

ANDERS ZORN’S HOUSE AT DALARNE

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