Carl Larsson was a Swedish painter, illustrator and designer born in 1853. He was known for his paintings done in oils, watercolors, and frescoes depicting scenes of family life with his wife and eight children at their home, Little Hyttnäs. Larsson helped popularize the Swedish interior design of his home through books containing reproductions of his paintings. His watercolor paintings brought him great success, especially the book "The House in the Sun" containing reproductions of his works depicting life at Little Hyttnäs with his family. Larsson is considered one of the most important Swedish artists for helping shape Swedish art and design in the late 19th century.

1. Carl Larsson
Carl Larsson (1853 –1919)
was a Swedish painter,
illustrator and designer.
His many paintings include
oils, watercolours, and
frescoes.
Larsson also drew several
sequential picture stories,
thus being one of Swedish
comic creators.
Larsson was born on May 28, 1853 in Gamla Stan, the old town
in Stockholm.

2. His parents were extremely poor,
and his childhood was not happy.
When he was 13 years old, his
teacher persuaded him to apply
for Principskolan, the
preparatory department of the
Royal Academy of Arts, and he
was admitted.
In 1869, at the age of sixteen, he
was promoted to the "antique
school" of the Academy. There,
Larsson gained confidence, and
even became a central figure in
the Academy’s life.

3. Larsson earned his first medal in nude drawing. In the meantime, he was
working as a caricaturist for the humorous paper Kasper and as graphic
artist for the newspaper Ny Illustrerad Tidning.
After several years working as an illustrator,
Larsson moved to Paris in 1877, where he
worked with no success. Along with other
Swedish artists, Larsson cut himself off from
the radical new movements.
He settled down with his Swedish colleagues in 1882 in Grez-sur-Loing, a
Scandinavian artists' colony outside Paris. It was there that he met Karin
Bergöö, who soon became his wife. This was to be a turning point in
Larsson's life. In Grez, Larsson painted some of his most important works,
now in watercolour, very different technique from what he had previously
employed.

4. Carl and Karin Larsson had eight children; they became Larsson's favourite
models. Many of his watercolours portrait her wife and children: Suzanne,
Pontus, Lisbeth, Brita, Kersti and Esbjörn .
given a small
In 1888 they were offered a
house, Little Hyttnäs,.
Carl and Karin decorated and
furnished this house according
to their particular artistic taste
This house has become one of the most famous artist's homes in the world,
transmitting the artistic taste of its creators and making it a major line in
Swedish interior design. The descendants of Carl and Karin Larsson now own
this house and keep it open.

5. Larsson's popularity increased with
the development of colour
reproduction technology in the
1890s, when a book containing full
colour reproductions of his
watercolours was published in
Sweden, ´A Home´.
Using a much improved tecnhique,
the German publisher Langewiesche,
in 1909, offered a still better choice
of watercolours, drawings and text by
Carl Larsson. Titled Das Haus in der
Sonne (The House in the Sun), the
book immediately became one of the
German best-sellers – 40 000 copies
sold in three months, and more than
40 print runs produced up to 2001.

6. Works of Carl Larsson

7. A Studio's Idill
Atelje-idyll
1885
His wife Karin with
Suzanne

8. A Lady Reading a Newspaper,
1886

9. Girl by a Flowering Hawthorn Bush (Flicka i blommande hagtorn),
1887

10. Karin and Brita, 1893

11. Ulf and Pontus,
1894

12. Flowers on the windowsill, 1894

13. The Verandah , 1895

14. When the Children have Gone to Bed, 1895

15. Breakfast under the big birch (Frukost under stora björken), 1897.

16. Brita and Her Sled, 1897

17. Lisbeth fishing, 1898

18. Brita as Iduna
( Iðunn ),
1901
In Norse mythology, Iðunn is
a goddess associated with
apples and youth.

19. Apple Harvest, 1903

20. My Eldest Daughter
Suzanne
1904

21. Lisbeth
reading,
1904

22. Girl Weaving Red Ribbon,
1905

23. In the Carpenter Shop, 1905

24. Threshing, 1906

25. Model writing postcards, 1906

26. Karin on the shore, 1908

27. Evening Before The Journey To England,
1909

28. Correspondence, 1912

29. Doing his
homework,
1912

30. Woman Lying on a Bench, 1913

31. His last monumental work, Midvinterblot (Midwinter Sacrifice), a large oil painting
completed in 1915, was commissioned for a wall in the National Museum in
Stockholm. The fresco depicts the blót (sacrifice) of King Domalde at the Temple of
Uppsala, carried out at Midwinter - a central event of the pre-Christian Norse
mythology.
The Swedish king Domalde. sacrificed in order to avert a famine.

33. Carl Larsson considered this his finest work .
Midvinterblot is now displayed inside the Swedish National Museum of Fine Arts.

34. Two more works

35. Spring (Våren), 1907

37. On the grass (Grongraset) , 1902

39. Useful link:
http://www.clg.se/encarl.aspx
Many of Carl Larsson works can be
found at
Goteborgs Konstmuseum Sweden
National Museum in Stockholm
© Mário Ricca, 2013