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Larsson Karl Olof (28.05.1853 - 22.01.1919)
Born in Stockholm in the Gamla Stan (Old Town). His parents lived extremely poorly, and his childhood could hardly be called happy. Larsson's mother was a laundress, and her father was a simple worker. Cruel and quick-tempered, he, having got drunk, often broke anger on the son. After another drinking session, he declared: “I curse the day when you were born”. Hard memories of this remained with Larsson for life. The talent of a 13-year-old Carl was noticed by his teacher in a school for the poor. On the advice of the teacher, Larsson applied for admission to school at the Swedish Royal Academy of Arts and was accepted. In the first years of his school years he felt like a second-rate man there, he was shy and shy. In 1869, at the age of sixteen, he entered the “ancient school” at the same academy. There, Larsson became more confident, and even gained greater fame among students. Karl received his first award for drawing in the “nude” genre. In addition, Larsson worked as a cartoonist in the humorous newspaper Casper and an illustrator in the newspaper Novaya illustrated newspaper. He earned enough to financially help his parents. In 1877, after several years of work as an illustrator, Larsson moved to Paris, where, however, despite persistence and aspiration, he could not succeed. Not interested in him and then popular in France, the direction of impressionism. On the contrary, together with other Swedish artists, he completely rejected the idea of change. After spending two summers in Barbizon, where many landscape artists lived at the time, in 1882, Larsson settled in Gre-sur-Luen, a small town in the suburbs of Paris, with his colleagues from Sweden. It was there that he met Karin Bergey, who soon became his wife. This meeting was a turning point in the life of the artist. There, in Gre-sur-Luen, Larsson wrote several of his most significant works, made in watercolors and very different from his past oil paintings. Karl and Karin had eight children, and it was the life of his family that Larsson most often imprints on his canvases. Many of the interiors depicted in his paintings were painted by his wife, who also worked as an interior designer. In 1888, the family received, as a gift from their parents, a small house in the vicinity of Sundborn, north of Stockholm. An idyllic life in your own home surrounded by your wife and children becomes a source of inspiration for the artist. On his canvases he depicts the life of his family. These works become an expression of the inner world and creative manner of the artist. In the last years of his life, the artist suffered from bouts of depression. While working on the large canvas “Winter Sacrifice” for the lobby of the National Museum, Larsson had problems with his eyesight, which led to the intensification of already frequent headaches. He died in Falun after a stroke . Buried at Sandborns Cemetery. Mountain in the Land of James I , the island of West Svalbard. Coordinates 78° 50'N 14° 30'E. |
