Historic wall art for homes with soul

Anders Zorn signed the self-portrait in Paris in 1896. The very next year, the Nationalmuseum acquired it, and the work was also exhibited in Stockholm that same year. The journey from the Paris studio to the Swedish national collection was thus unusually short. Today, a famous self-portrait can seem as though it has always belonged in a museum, but here it is almost possible to follow the transfer in real time: from a contemporary work by an internationally active Swedish artist to a national focal point in only about a year. The acquisition shows how firmly Zorn’s standing was already established—the museum did not need to wait for the judgment of posterity.