Carl Larsson

Carl Larsson self portrait

Carl Larsson (1853 - 1919) was one of Sweden's best loved artists. He is popular to this day.

Carl Larsson
(1853 - 1919)

Carl Larsson is one of Sweden's best-loved artists. The watercolours of his home and family from the end of the nineteenth century are widely acclaimed as one of the richest records of life at that time. Today, over sixty thousand people a year visit Sundborn, where he once lived, to admire Larsson's home and work.

Larsson was born in 1853 into a poor family in Stockholm, Sweden. Despite his humble beginnings, at the age of thirteen he was accepted into the Stockholm Academy of Fine Arts and won his first award at age sixteen.

In 1880 he moved to Paris and then to nearby Grez, where he lived in a colony of Swedish open-air painters. It was there that he met his wife Karin, an accomplished artist and textile designer, and they married in 1883. A year later, Karin gave birth to their first child, Suzanne.

Soon after, the family moved back to Sweden, to the pastoral village of Sundborn. They moved into a cottage given to them by Karin's father, and it was from here that Larsson drew the inspiration for his paintings. He and Karin had eight children, and this busy rural lifestyle became the setting for many of his most famous and well-loved works. He was greatly inspired by Japanese prints and Swedish folk art and as a consequence his style became very colourful and decorative during this time.

In 1897, the neighbouring farm came up for sale including four cows, one horse, one pig, some sheep and chickens. The Larson's bought it using money Carl had earned from painting murals for the National Museum in Stockholm. Unable to manage the farm and continue to paint, Carl hired Johan and his wife Johanna who had worked on the farm previously to continue with its upkeep. Their work became the subject of many of Larsson's later paintings.

Carl Larsson died on 22 January 1919 at the age of 66. Yet almost a century on, the sketches and paintings of his home and family continue to offer a unique and intimate insight into his life.


by Carl Larsson


Carl Larsson's Home, Family and Farm cover image

Carl Larsson's Home, Family and Farm

This high-quality hardback showcases Larsson's beautiful watercolours depicting Swedish rural life at the turn of the last century. With 58 full colour reproductions, this is the perfect gift for any art lover. A combined edition of Home, Family and Farm.

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