Art Wednesday: Carl Lasson


Artist: Carl Lasson (1853- 1919)
Birthplace: Stockholm, Sweden
Arts and Crafts movement


Carl Larsson was born in Gamlastan, the old quarter of Stockholm, on 28 May 1853. His family was very poor and Carl grew up in dismal circumstances. The only glimmer of hope was his strong artistic talent, which emerged early on in his life. When he was thirteen years old his teacher at the school for the poor persuaded him to apply for a place at Principskolan, the preparatory department of the Art Academy.   During the first years at Principskolan Carl found it difficult to settle in. His sense of social inferiority made him feel like an outsider. But that changed when, at the age of sixteen, he was moved up to the antique school, the lowest department of the Art Academy. He began to feel more confident and it was not long before he became one of the central figures in student circles.

After the Art Academy Carl worked at illustrating books, magazines and daily newspapers. He also spent several years in Paris where he tried to establish himself as an artist, but in spite of all his hard work he never achieved any success.  The turning point came in 1882 when he moved to Grez, a Scandinavian artists’ colony outside Paris. It was there he met his future wife Karin Bergöö and underwent an artistic transformation after abandoning his pretentious oil painting in favour of watercolours - a lucky move that would mean a lot for his artistic development. It was in Grez that he painted some of his most significant pictures. (Sourced from: link)
 
Below are some beautiful examples of his watercolours.
 
 
 Papa's bedroom
 
 Breakfast under the big birch
 Creatures at ease
 Fishing
 Hilda
 The room below is from the home that Lasson lived in with his family and used in many of his works - as in the painting above.
 
 ~oOo~
 

Comments

  1. Carl has some very colorful, cheerful, and bright water color paintings. I can see he was a very talented water color painter, for water color paints are not a very easy medium to use. I know, I have tired, and it was quite a mess, indeed! ha, ha! :)

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  2. Wow, Jo! I love these paintings. What beautiful reflections of everyday life.

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  3. I loved all of these paintings!

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  4. Carl Larsson's paintings delight me--cheerful presentations of home and family.

    Thank-you for giving us a sketch of his life!

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  5. Oh how beautiful...and each is so refreshing. Another one to put on my list to look up this summer. My sixth child is enjoying art with me, so I will enjoy this with him.

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  6. I'm dreadfully late with this comment - but I loved this post, Jo!
    He's one of my favourite artists.
    blessings..Trish

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