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Carl Larsson (May 28, 1853–January 22, 1919)
was a Sweden|Swedish painter and interior
designer.


The Swedish artist Carl Larsson was born in Gamla
stan, the old town in Stockholm. His parents were
extremely poor and his childhood was not happy.
However, at the age of thirteen his teacher at the
school for poor children urged him to apply to the
"principskola" of the Royal Swedish Academy of
Arts and he was admitted. During his first years
there, Larsson felt socially inferior, confused,
and shy. In 1869, at the age of sixteen, he was
promoted to the "antique school" of the same
academy. There Larsson gained confidence and even
became a central figure in student life.

After several years working as an illustrator of
books, magazines, and newspapers, Larsson moved to
Paris where he spent several rather frustrating
years as a hardworking artist without any success.

In 1882, whilst in Grez-sur-Loing, at a
Scandinavian artists colony outside Paris, he met
Karin Bergöö (1859–1928), 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 water-colour and
very different from the oil painting technique he
had previously employed.

It should also be noted that Larsson drew several
sequential picture stories, thus being one of the
earliest Swedish list of comic creators|comic
creators.

Carl and Karin Larsson raised eight children and
his new family became Larsson's favourite models
and many of the watercolours he produced are now
popular all over the world.


In 1888 the young family was given a small house,
named Little Hyttnäs, in Sundborn by Karin's
father Adolf Bergöö. Carl and Karin decorated
and furnished this house according to their
particular artistic taste and also for the needs
of the growing family.

Through Larsson's paintings and books this house
has become one of the most famous artist's homes
in the world. The descendants of Carl and Karin
Larsson now own this house and keep it open for
tourists each summer from May until October.

Larsson's popularity increased considerably with
the development of colour reproduction technology
in the 1890s, when the Swedish publisher Bonnier
published books written and illustrated by Larsson
and containing full colour reproductions of his
watercolours, e.g. "A Home". However, the print
runs of these rather expensive albums did not come
close to that produced in 1909 by the German
publisher Karl Robert Langewiesche
(1874–1931): His choice of watercolours,
drawings and text by Carl Larsson, titled "Das
Haus in der Sonne" ("The House in the Sun"),
immediately became one of the German publishing
industry's best-sellers of the year — 40,000
copies sold in three months, and more than 40
print runs have been produced up to 2001. Carl and
Karin Larsson declared themselves overwhelmed by
such success.


Carl Larsson considered his monumental works, for
instance the frescos in schools, museums and other
public buildings, to be his most important works.
His last monumental work Midvinterblot (Midwinter
Sacrifice) created in 1915 and intended for the
last wall in the staircase of the Swedish National
Museum of Fine Arts|National Museum in Stockholm
— which was not yet decorated by Carl
Larsson — was refused by the board of the
museum, and was not displayed in its intended
location until 1992. In his memoirs Jag ("I")
— published after Larsson's death — he
declared his bitterness and disappointment with
this rejection of the painting he himself
considered to be his greatest achievement. In his
memoirs, Larsson wrote "The fate of the 'Midwinter
Sacrifice' broke me! This I admit with a dark
anger. And still, it was probably the best thing
that could happen, for now my intuition tells me
— again — that with all its weakness,
this painting will once be honoured with far
better placement after my death." He admitted,
however, in the same memoirs  that the pictures of his family
and home "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." 

commons|Carl Larsson
== External links ==
*http://www.clg.se/ The Carl and Karin Larsson
Family Association
*http://www.scandinaviantreasures.com/website1/gal
1.html Carl Larsson Gallery