Brought up in a Stockholm slum rife with cholera, Larsson went on to paint his family life in the idyllic Swedish home. Here’s how he started.
Larsson
Plans to celebrate anniversaries of major painters, series on narrative paintings, and more, for the coming year.
From Dante Gabriel Rossetti, through Lovis Corinth, to Alphonse Mucha and Christian Krohg – modern masterpieces.
After a rough patch in the 1890s, he found his earlier form and painted spectacular works showing seabirds around the fragment coast of the Baltic.
Two young women painters left Stockholm to study in Paris in 1883. Good friends, their paths diverged, but their paintings were full of light – including a real gem.
His watercolours proved very successful in a series of best-selling books. But the large mural paintings by which he hoped to be remembered were more of a problem.
His watercolours changed, losing their painterliness and defocus. They came to depict an idyllic, outdoor family life – an aspiration for so many in northern Europe.
Known best for his watercolours of his wife and family in their ideal and idyllic Swedish home, his work is far richer and more varied.
After a visit to Berlin, his colours became more strident, and his brushstrokes looser. He also made many woodcuts, which influenced and informed his paintings.
The monumental mural painted by Larsson was intended to be his greatest painting. It turned out to be his most controversial.
The Eclectic Light Company 