At the Bathtub 1914

Anders Zorn made this oil painting, called "At the Bathtub," sometime around the turn of the 20th century. Zorn, who came from humble beginnings in Sweden, became internationally famous for his society portraits, but he also painted a lot of nudes like this one. Though seemingly a simple scene, the painting is full of artistic and social tensions. In Sweden at this time, there was a growing movement to embrace nature, health and the simple life, which ran in opposition to urban decadence. There was also a nude painting tradition that went back centuries. But the art academies were very conservative and Zorn's nudes were controversial. To understand paintings like this, we might look at the artist's biography, the politics of Sweden at the time, and the history of the art academy and the nude in art. The meaning of art isn't just in the image itself, but in how it relates to the world around it.