Anders Zorn, Mrs. Walter Rathbone Bacon (Virginia Purdy Barker, 1862-1919), 1897, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Walter Rathbone Bacon in memory of her husband, 1917, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Title: Mrs. Walter Rathbone Bacon, 1897
Artist: Anders Zorn (1860-1920)
They are definitely best friends, American heiress and art collector Virginia Rathbone Bacon and her collie. Yet while she, attired in a softly flowing gown, engages us with a welcoming look, her canine companion is more aloof and disinterested in his human audience.. The portrait, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was commissioned by her brother-in-law.
His choice was Swedish master Anders Zorn who was a popular portraitist working in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—his clients including presidents Cleveland, Taft, and Theodore Roosevelt. Sometimes known as a Scandinavian Impressionist, Zorn uses a rapid, at times thick brushstroke to define the figures, although he worked in a realistic style as well.
So happy birthday to Anders Zorn, born on February 18, 165 years ago today in 1860 in Mora, Sweden.
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