Anders Zorn Swedish, 1860-1920

Captured unawares as she ambles through the undergrowth deep in the woods, the artist’s view of the curvaceous model is suggestively voyeuristic, obscured by the foliage in the foreground.

The female nude, en plein air, was not only Zorn’s most recognised motif but also his most pioneering, the serene yet wild character of the surrounding landscape providing him with the backdrop to explore his ideas of showing his models in a natural environment in spontaneous action, rather than approaching the subject in the studio, painting contrived poses.

In his early nudes Zorn tended to dissolve the figure into the landscape. However, enhanced by his work as a sculptor, his strong feeling for the solidity of forms led towards an increasingly sculptural conception of the female nude in his later paintings. He used his, at times, overwhelming carnal desire for the figure before him to stimulate the brushstrokes into capturing the vitality and sensuality of the female form on canvas.