Carl and Karin Larsson - Swedish art, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England

Magazine Antiques, Nov, 1997 by Miriam Kramer

Continuing a series of exhibitions devoted to major designers such as William Morals (1834 -1896) and Augustus Wesley North Pugin (1812-1852), the Victoria and Albert Museum in London has mounted Carl and Karin Larsson: Creators of the Swedish Style, which will be on view at the museum until January 18, 1998. Sponsored by IKEA, it is the first major exhibition ever held outside Sweden devoted to the Larssons.

Carl Larsson was born in Stockholm in 1853 to a poor family living in a slum. He showed early talent as an artist and was accepted in 1866 as a student in the Konstakadem-Stockholm (Stockholm Academy of Fine Arts). He worked as an illustrator from 1871 onwards, earning his living in this fashion for twenty years. In 1881 his submission to the Pads Salon was rejected, but the following year he returned to France and moved into a Scandinavian artists' colony in Grez-sur-Loing, a village southeast of Paris. There he met his future wife, Karin Bergoo (1859-1928), who was also a painter, and there he discovered his talent for plein-air watercolor painting.

In 1885, the year after the first of their seven children was born, the Larssons moved back to Sweden. In 1888 Karin Larsson's father gave them a cottage, Lilla Hyttnas, in the village of Sundborn, which they set out to enlarge and decorate, combining traditional rural Swedish designs with modern concepts of color and pattern. The small, light rooms were economically furnished to fit the needs of the Larssons' life. In some senses Lilla Hyttnas could be considered an "artistic" house in the same sense as those designed by Morris or Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928). The main difference is that the Larssons were less concerned with quality than with function and beauty. They were not, after all, working for clients, but rather creating an environment for themselves.

Carl Larsson was not slow to exploit his paradise. In 1894 he began to paint a series of watercolors of his house and family, which were published in book form in 1899 under the title Ett hem (A home). He also worked on commissions such as ceiling paintings for the Stockholm Opera and the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. By 1901 the family had moved permanently to Sundborn. Karin Larsson became an expert designer and weaver of textiles to complement her husband's painted decorations.

Carl died in 1919 and Karin in 1928. In 1937 Lilla Hyttnas was opened to the public as Carl Larsson Garden. It may be visited from May 1 to September 30.

The catalogue of the exhibition is published in both hard and paper covers. The latter may be ordered from the Victoria and Albert Museum for [pounds]19.95 at 171-938-8438.