En premiär

He studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm from 1875 to 1880, and then spent time travelling in Europe, painting watercolours and society portraits in London, Paris and Madrid.

Zorn spent some time in 1887 and 1888 painting watercolours of naked people enjoying the water at the seaside resort of Dalarö, before moving to Paris to exhibit works there in 1889.

At that time, paintings of naked women were controversial outside a mythological setting, and bathing in the sea was banned in the Swedish archipelago.

He won three medals at the Paris Salon that year, two for portraits (a watercolour of the dancer Rosita Mauri, and an oil painting of the journalist Antonin Proust who was serving as Minister of Fine Arts and President of the Exposition) and one for his oil painting of three women bathing, Ute (Outdoors).

The etching exists in four states, and includes a beach strip at the foreground with tall reeds behind the human figures.

Zorn later became unhappy with his original 1888 watercolour version, and tore it up in 1894-95, leaving marks that are visible in its current condition.