Vallkulla 1912

Anders Zorn made this artwork using etching, a printmaking technique where lines are incised into a metal plate to hold the applied ink. Imagine him bending over the plate, scratching away, pulling lines from his imagination. It's such a linear world, all these marks together. The texture almost feels like fabric. I find myself wondering, what was Zorn thinking as he created this? What did the figure mean to him? There's a kind of dreamy quality to this image. The figure is still, caught in a moment of reflection. The background is dark and mysterious, obscuring the details of the surroundings. Thinking about Zorn, I'm reminded of other artists preoccupied with line and form like Dürer and Rembrandt. They're all in conversation, riffing off each other through time. The magic of art, right?