The Large Brewery
artist
Anders Zorn
(Mora, 1860 - 1920, Mora)
Date1890
Place MadeSweden, Europe
MediumEtching on wove paper
Dimensions26.8 x 36 cm (10 9/16 x 14 3/16 in.)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession number3.3.o.120
eMuseum ID724886
Original Number4.1.r.145
EmbARK ObjectID14054
TMS Source ID2882
Last Updated10/3/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryIn 1890, artist Anders Zorn painted and made prints of Swedish breweries, the businesses that made, bottled, and sold beer. The Large Brewery etching is modeled after a larger painted composition in the Gӧteborgs Konstemuseum.
Storing beer required cool temperatures, so breweries were often located in basements. The women in back form an assembly line of filling and corking bottles. Seated against the wall, seven women—all wearing the same style shiny wax apron—carefully apply labels to the beer bottles. Zorn captures light reflecting off a label by leaving a bright white spot on the heavily inked sheet.
Storing beer required cool temperatures, so breweries were often located in basements. The women in back form an assembly line of filling and corking bottles. Seated against the wall, seven women—all wearing the same style shiny wax apron—carefully apply labels to the beer bottles. Zorn captures light reflecting off a label by leaving a bright white spot on the heavily inked sheet.
BibliographyNotesSven Lidbeck, Anders Zorn Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Helsinki, 2007), p. 67, ZG40.
Oliver Tostmann et al. Anders Zorn: A European Artist Seduces America. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2013), pp. 106-108.
Elizabeth Reluga, "The Breweries of Anders Zorn," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 5 October 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/breweries-anders-zorn
Oliver Tostmann et al. Anders Zorn: A European Artist Seduces America. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2013), pp. 106-108.
Elizabeth Reluga, "The Breweries of Anders Zorn," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 5 October 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/breweries-anders-zorn
MarksNotesSigned and dated in plate (lower right): Zorn 1890
Signed in graphite (lower right): Zorn
Numbered in graphite (lower left corner): A.40
Numbered in graphite (lower right corner): 147
Signed in graphite (lower right): Zorn
Numbered in graphite (lower left corner): A.40
Numbered in graphite (lower right corner): 147
ProvenanceNotesEntered Isabella Stewart Gardner's collection at an unknown date.
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