Mrs. Kip 1904

This is Anders Zorn's portrait of Mrs. Kip, a flurry of quick, dark strokes made with an etching needle on a metal plate. I'm thinking about Zorn in his studio, carefully layering these lines, building form with such precision that you feel the weight of Mrs. Kip’s massive feathered hat. Did he keep going until he got it ‘right’, or was there a point where he had to stop, even if it felt unfinished? The way the light catches the soft fur of her stole is quite captivating, right? It's all these tiny scratches, a network of marks. And it's not just about representation, it's about the pure pleasure of mark-making. He seems to enjoy playing with light and shadow like his contemporary, Sargent. It reminds me that artists are constantly talking to each other, even across time, trading techniques, and pushing the boundaries of how we see. Ultimately, it's the artist's hand, their sensibility, that makes the work sing.