Vid badkaret

Painted in 1915 when Anders Zorn was at the height of his powers as a figure painter, Vid badkaret (By the Bathtub) belongs to the extended series of intimate bathing scenes that occupied him throughout the 1910s. Zorn had established his international reputation in the 1890s through portraits and genre scenes bridging Stockholm, Paris, and New York, but his late career returned insistently to Swedish subjects — the lakes, farmhouses, and women of his native Dalarna. The bathing scenes of this period combine frank observation of the nude with an interest in the play of warm interior light on wet or damp skin. Zorn worked from live models in controlled studio conditions, yet his rapid, direct brushwork gives the finished canvases an immediacy suggesting spontaneous observation. By 1915 he had largely withdrawn from the international circuit, preferring to work at Mora on the shores of Lake Siljan, and the domestic intimacy of bathing subjects suited this more inward phase of his career. The work exemplifies his mature command of surface, light, and the human body without ornamental distraction.

Oil on canvas with Zorn's hallmark alla prima technique: bold, directional strokes of broken colour that describe form through the direction and weight of each mark rather than smooth blending. The warm skin tones are built up through layered, confident brushwork contrasting with the cooler whites and greys of the bathtub and surrounding space.