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Mrs. Potter Palmer
Anders Zorn (Swedish, 1860–1920)
1893
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 258 × 141.2 cm (101 5/8 × 55 5/8 in.); Framed: 266.1 × 149.6 × 10.2 cm (104 3/4 × 58 7/8 × 4 in.)
- Culture
- Sweden
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Potter Palmer Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This portrait shows Bertha Palmer holding the ivory gavel she used to preside over meetings of the Board of Lady Managers for the World’s Columbian Exposition, which opened in Chicago in 1893. The board, with Palmer as president, was responsible for organizing the Woman’s Building at the fair. Palmer requested Swedish portraitist Anders Zorn for this painting because his impressionistic style was in keeping with her taste as a collector, which was considered radical at the time. While organizing the Exposition, Palmer traveled through Europe acquiring Impressionist works, including several on view in this gallery.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
