 |
| (The Kitchen by Carl Larsson) |
 |
| (The First Lesson by Carl Larsson) |
 |
| (Through the Fence by Carl Larsson) |
 |
| (Ulf and Pontus by Carl Larsson) |
 |
| (Sunday Rest by Carl Larsson) |
 |
| (When the Children have Gone to Bed by Carl Larsson) |
“Carl Larsson was a Swedish artist. Born in 1853 into a poor
family, he had a deeply unhappy childhood. His father was violent and unstable,
and his mother worked long hours to support the family. It was as a teenager
that Larsson discovered his artistic calling and was accepted into art school,
quickly establishing himself.
Possibly because of his background, Carl Larsson never seems
to have felt at home among the artistic currents of his time. And though
admired by many other artists, art critics attacked his work. Larsson’s great
ambition was to create large-scale murals. When what he considered his greatest
work, Midvinterblot, was panned upon completion in 1915, he was
crestfallen.
But it’s not for his murals that he’s remembered. It was in
the 1880s that he met and married Karin Bergoo, a talented artist and interior
designer. Together they would have eight children, and the beautifully
decorated home Karin created would become the backdrop to Larsson’s lasting
work: paintings of family life.
Larsson managed to find and create the kind of family life
that eluded him as a child. And in his autobiography he would admit that
despite disappointment about creative ambitions, the family paintings that are
beloved around the world ‘became the most immediate and lasting part of my life’s
work. For these pictures are of course a very genuine expression of my
personality, of my deepest feelings, of all my limitless love for my wife and
children.’”
~John Herreid
Comments