Figure 1.--We do not have any detailed infomation on this Larsson portrait, but believe it was painted in 1895.
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Figure 1.--We do not have any detailed infomation on this Larsson portrait, but believe it was painted in 1895. |
Carl Larsson is Although not as sell known as many other imprtant artists, is one of the greatest artists who have painted children. Few artists have been able to capture the essential qualities of children as effectively as Carl Larsson. Bergman films seem to recreate the ambience that Larsson painted. I know little bout his artistic career at this time, but I do note several beautiful portraits of children with detailed illustrations of period clothing. His paintings provide wondeful glimpses as to how children were dressed in Sweeden in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Karl's father prived unable or unwilling to support the family. It was Karl's mother ho worked as a laundress that provided for he family as best she could.
Karl was born is Stockholm during 1853. He grew up in a poor section of Stockholm and and a very difficult childhood because of poverty. Curiously the usually happy images of childhood that he painted are very differe
Larsson studied art for some time in Paris. It was there that he began to develop his mnow reconizeable style.
Larsson had little self confidence as a young man as a result of the poverty in which he was raised. He married Karin Bergoo, also a painter, in 1883. She is credited for helping to create a calm, stable home environment in which Larsson and his art florished.
Larsson was one of the most importnt of a generation of Swedish artists that were influenced by the French Impressionists and rejected the traditional forms on which the Stockholm Academy insisted. Although influenced by the Impressionists was not an impressionist himself. His style actually is hard to classify. Art historians point to many styles that have influenced Larsson: Impressionism, Neo-Rococo, Japanese prints, art noveau, and other influences. One of the most noticeable influences in Larsson's paintings is Sweedish folk art. Here the usually happy domestic scenes or humble peasant genre images mirror popular Swedish folk art subjects. He also liked to use bright colors, another aspect of folk art. Larsson skills, however, are much more refined than folk art.
Carl Larsson is Although not as sell known as many other imprtant artists, is one of the greatest artists who have painted children. Few artists have been able to capture the essential qualities of children as effectively as Carl Larsson.
His paintings provide wondeful glimpses as to how children were dressed in Sweeden in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Presumably there were many simularities with Norway, Finland, and Denmark.
While we can admire Larsson's work, we in fact know little about the individual portraits that we have collected by him. He presents us with a wide range of children in many different outfits. Hopefully our Swedish readers can tell us more about Larsson and his paintings.
The child seen here appears to be wearing a belted tunuic with a lace collar and tan long stockings (figure 1). We do not lnow, however who the boy is. We would guess that he comes from a prosperous middle-class urban family.
We also note a wonderful country scene with a mother anf her children. He daughter swears a pinafore, very common at the time. The boys, however, seem to be wearing caps and tunics which seemed influenced by folk costume. It is interesting that the boys wear these folk -like costumes while mother and her daughter do not. In much of Euroope, it was more common for women and girls to wear folk costmes than boys. Here an exception may be Germany. One of the boys is barefoot while the other wears stripped long stockings and unusually short shoirt pants for the timne. I'm not sure when the painyting was dine, but I would guess the 1890s.
Burkhard Riemschneider, 1993.
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