Carl Larsson (1853 - 1919)

Nationality

Sweden

Place of Birth

Stockholm, Sverige

Place of Death

Falun, Sverige

Biography

Carl Larsson is one of Sweden’s most famous and most popular illustrators and watercolour painters. Larsson grew up in poverty in Stockholm. After training at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, in 1877 he travelled to Paris where he spent a few years attempting to make a living as an artist, without success. A turning point came when Larsson entered Grez, a Scandinavian artists’ colony outside Paris. Here he met the artist Karin Bergöö, who he married, and began to develop the watercolour painting he is known for today. Larsson is famous for his idyllic rural scenes and pictures of life at the family home of Lilla Hyttnäs in Sundborn outside Falun. Carl and Karin Larsson moved here in 1888. The paintings of their home rapidly became popular and led to Carl Larsson receiving several major commissions, including painting frescoes for Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.