Anders Zorn was one of Sweden's foremost artists who obtained international success as a painter, sculptor and print maker in etching. His fame abroad is founded mostly on his portraiture where he had the ability to capture the character and the personality of the depicted person. His incisive ability to depict the individual character of his model is, for example, apparent in portraits of prominent cultural personalities. The model's surroundings were important; Zorn believed that a portrait should be painted in an environment that was natural for the model. An artificial studio environment was not to his taste. Beginning in 1910, Zorn focused on developing his control of the technique and motif. He accomplished this with such certainty that the process of painting can assume the dominant role, sometimes to the detriment of the work's emotional expression.
