Carl Larsson by Klaus H. Carl

Author:Klaus H. Carl [Carl, Klaus H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781683254447
Publisher: Parkstone International

Convalescence, 1899-1902

Watercolour on paper, 52 x 66 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Open-Air Studio, c. 1900

From A Home. Watercolour on paper, 32 x 43 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Viking Expedition, 1900

Watercolour on paper, 61 x 103 cm. Private collection

Esbjörn, 1900

Watercolour on paper, 45.5 x 33 cm. Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Göteborg

Around the Evening Lamp, 1900

Watercolour on paper, 45 x 38 cm. Thielska Galleriet, Stockholm

In the years from 1886 to 1891, Larsson was very active, although he hadn’t found his own artistic identity yet. In 1886, he didn’t return to oil painting at all, and later only once when he created Open-Air Painter, Winter-Motif from Äsögatan 145, Stockholm (1886), a picture thoroughly corresponding to the usual idea of hibernal, snow-covered Sweden. Surrounded by several curious, but probably not very competent spectators of different ages, a painter, covered against the cold, is sitting on a stool in front of his easel, painting with his clammy red hands the subject on the opposite side: a fully loaded red sleigh, whose driver is obviously sending a delivery to one of the houses in the background. This painting was shown at the Salon in Paris in the same year.

In spring 1886, he undertakes a journey leading him, north to south, through half of Europe – from Stockholm to Paris, which had been on his mind his entire life, and then to Venice, Rome and Messina. Taking into account the traffic conditions of the time he can’t have spent much time at each destination along his 4 000 km journey, for he was back in Stockholm in May. Furthermore, the reason for this trip cannot entirely be retraced. Was it a mission or pure wanderlust? In any case, in Sweden his art attracted more and more attention and appreciation, resulting in Larsson taking a position as a teacher at Gothenburg’s Art School Valand, guaranteeing him and his family a continuous income. Paintings dating from that year are Lady Reading the Newspaper (1886), a colourful picture of a woman in front of a drywall and brittle trees in a rather uncomfortable position, and Still Life Painter (1886), showing a vanitas picture, where a relatively young man wearing a red hat and a black jacket is standing in front of his easel, and which shows a candle, a dagger, and a half-covered skull.

In spring 1887, Larsson’s son Ulf is born. He comments on the event in his typically colloquial tone:

At the time, I was eagerly working on my triptych, having models for the painting from 8 o’clock in the morning until 5 o’clock in the afternoon, and for the sculptures from 8 until 12 at night, leaving me really exhausted. But this event proved what a brave soul my wife is, something that shouldn’t go unmentioned. […]

When, here in this free republic and in the socialist 22nd district of the City of Paris, I wanted to name the boy Björn, it was simply refused bacause it wasn’t a name, they said. (That he should have been called Pontus, I only realised a few days later!).

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