Self-Portrait (1896)

Zorn painted himself all his life, and the self-portraits the Nationalmuseum holds follow a career that ran from a childhood in Mora to an international reputation as the most admired portraitist of his generation. This one is dated 1896, when he was at the height of his powers. The paint is laid on with the broad, quick certainty that made his name, and the head is treated as a problem of light and a record of character at the same time. Zorn had trained at the Stockholm Academy, but the technique he became famous for came from working directly from the model — a manner that can look almost careless a step away from the canvas and exact up close. It is held in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.