Farewell Zorns (recto); Farewell Deerings (verso)

Anders Zorn's "Farewell Zorns (recto); Farewell Deerings (verso)" is a double-sided pen and brown ink drawing, likely created during a visit between the Zorn and Deering families. The Deerings were a prominent American family—Charles Deering (1852–1927) was a wealthy industrialist and art collector who became a close friend of Zorn's. The two families maintained a long friendship, and Zorn produced numerous works for the Deerings during his visits to America. The recto shows a farewell scene, perhaps at a railway station or port, with figures gesturing in leave-taking. Zorn's pen technique is remarkably expressive—he captures the emotion and bustle of departure with rapid, energetic strokes that create a sense of movement and feeling. The verso continues the theme with more figures. This drawing is historically valuable as a document of the social world of Gilded Age elite society, showing the close ties between European artists and American industrialists that characterized the international art market of the period.

Zorn's drawings of the Deering family document the close relationship between European artists and American patrons that fueled the Gilded Age art market and brought European artistic traditions to American collections.

This double-sided drawing captures a personal moment of friendship between two families, transformed by Zorn's empathetic eye into a universally resonant scene of farewell and human connection.