Grietje M. Hoogland

The first artwork I should definitely describe before my trip to Stockholm starts, is one I saw in the National Museum of
Stockholm, on my birthday in 2009. It took my breath away. It is made by one of the most famous Swedish artists Anders Zorn in 1888. “En premiär”; a premiere, it is very suitably called. Although it is in a terrible state: the cracks are very well visible, I immediately thought it was very beautiful. What drew my attention is the tenderness of the two figures in the water. The young woman is assisting the little boy by going into the water, and you can see that she cares for him. Could she be his older sister maybe?

A little internet research shows that Zorn likes to depict women bathing in the nude. Who wouldn’t: look at these beautiful hips. But luckily he doesn’t only act as a voyeur; he sees something even more interesting. He sees how the light plays with the water, how the water reflects the light while it moves. The way he depicted the water round the legs of the two figures is amazing. The light also plays with the skin of the woman and the boy, and you can see how Zorn enjoyed painting the softness of the warm evening light on the backs and legs of the two.

What I also found, was a later version of this painting: “With Mother”, painted seven years later, in 1895. So it is not the older sister, but the mother that supports the little boy in the water. This one is hanging in the Museum of Fine Arts in Gent, Belgium. As you can see they look a lot alike, but with noticeable differences. The first is that the frame is much wider in the second painting, so we see a lot more background. Another difference is that in the second painting, the woman turns her head more towards the boy, which makes her look even more caring than in the first, although in the first painting the composition is much better. Why he redid the painting is not clear.
What ís clear though, at least to me, is that this small painting, hanging in the national museum of Stockholm, is one of these images that does not let you go. We made a picture of it – no flashlights of course – so I could be assured that I could take something of this image home with me. And now it is the perfect premiere to my new weblog.