The most expensive Swedish artwork ever sold at auction

Anders Zorn, “Sunday morning”, just sold at Bukowskis for 35 250 000 SEK

With an estimate of 12–15 MSEK, the expectations were high when Anders Zorn’s masterpiece “Söndagsmorgon (Sunday morning)” went under the hammer at this year’s most prominent and final Live auction – Important Winter Sale. The opening bid was 10 250 000 MSEK, with several bidders over the phone. After intense bidding that lasted for 8 minutes, with four telephones through to the end, the artwork went under the hammer for 35 250 000 SEK and was followed by applause in the salesroom.

In the summer of 1891 Zorn spent a great deal of time in Mora. This was a particularly creative period for him. Several of his finest paintings of Dalecarlian women were executed then, and amongst these is this interior, which he entitled Söndagsmorgon. The painting depicts three girls who are getting ready for church on a sunny summer’s morning. It is a childhood memory that Zorn recreates in the painting. In the small Mora cottages, there were no private areas for taking care of one’s personal hygiene. In the old farming communities, this was done, as were so many other things, in the shared rooms.