In the painting flodkulla en face, zorn's fondness for the old valley culture and the healthy red-cheeked hills is clear. Zorn demonstrates his skill as a colorist when it comes to playing out the beautiful and intense colors of the costume as accents in the composition. In one of his many books about zorn, hans henrik brummer speaks of "faithful tributes to the motley of moradräkten". This time, however, it is a suit from floda that represents the splendor of color in the composition. The embroidered jacket glows red, as does the headband, skirt hem and stocking. The light falls in through the doorway from the left and you can sense the reflections from the small window in the room. Zorn has let the light play over the clothing, the timbered walls and the girl's facial features, which gives clear evidence of how skillfully he mastered light and shadow. The model deserves an extra mention. Namely, it was no ordinary hillbilly who had donned the flodadräkt, but brita söderblom (later married to archbishop yngve brillioth). Brita was the daughter of the, at the time, newly appointed archbishop nathan söderblom. The söderblom family were frequent guests of anders and emma zorn in mora. Obviously, there was a warm bond of friendship between the families which could be traced back to their common association in paris during the 1890s. Just in 1915, the interaction seems to have been particularly intense. In january of that year, nathan söderblom visited mora. In august, söderblom and zorn, together with the national antiquary sahlin, also took a drive through hälsingland. The journey went from söderala through trönö, hudiksvall and bjuråker. Nathan söderblom writes to zorn on august 29 from uppsala that during the trip he got a "comprehensive and strong image of the home region" and adds "it was probably the contagious proximity of your visual aids". However, the söderblom family's socializing was by no means limited to the spouses zorn in mora. Brita has told about how she not only learned to play billiards at zorn's house, but also learned how to play solitaire at carl and karin larsson's house in sundborn. As late as the beginning of the 1980s, brita also remembered how she, as a 16-year-old, came to visit emma and anders zorn, and how anders then "got to" paint her in a flodadräkt. Object Type: painting. Date: 1915. Place of creation: Mora, Sweden. Dimensions: height: 120 cm (47.2 in); width: 90 cm (35.4 in). Medium: oil on canvas. Collection: Private collection. Anders Zorn - Flodakulla en face 1915
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