Midsummer Dance

This painting is often seen as an ideal image of a Swedish tradition, but is anything but an authentic record of a moment in time. Zorn painted it for the Stockholm Exhibition of 1897. The year before he had staged the whole thing in Mora, acquired a maypole and asked young people from the area to dance, despite the church’s ban on Midsummer celebrations in the actual village. The maypole tradition was imported by German immigrants five centuries ago.

Credit: Gift 1903 Konstakademien with contribution from Wholesale dealer Pontus and wife Göthilda Fürstenber