"Vallmor" / "Les coquelicots" (Poppies)
Signed Carl Larsson and dated 1884. Painted in Grez-sur-Loing, France. Watercolour 63.5 x 44 cm.
Originally in the collection of Actor and Art Collector Constant Coquelin (Coquelin Aîné), Paris (commissioned directly from the artist during the Salon in Paris 1884).
Galerie George Petit, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 1909 (the Sale of Coquelin's significant art collection).
The collection of Edvard Berg, Paris (acquired at the above Sale).
Mrs. Edvard Berg, Paris.
Private collection.
Bukowski Auktioner, Stockholm, Sale 410, "Vårauktionen", 25 - 28 April 1979, lot 291.
Private collection (acquired at the above Sale).
Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, "Carl Larsson-Bruno-Liljefors-Anders Zorn", 9 July - 17 August 1930, no. 33.
"Carl Larsson. Skildrad av honom själv i text och bilder. En krönika sammanställd av Harriet och Sven Alfons", 1952, illustrated p. 93.
Ulwa Neergaard, "Carl Larsson. Signerat med pensel och penna", 1999, catalogued p. 23, no. 154.
Per I. Gedin, "Jag Carl Larsson. En biografi av Per I. Gedin", 2011, mentioned p. 99.
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Carl Larsson is considered one of the greatest Swedish artists of all time. He was born in Gamla Stan in Stockholm and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in the years 1866-76. After his studies in Stockholm, he traveled to France and settled in Grèz-sur-Loing. There he mainly painted garden motifs. In France, he met his future wife Karin Bergöö, who was also an artist and came to mean a lot for his artistry. Already during his student years, he made a living as a photo retoucher and cartoonist in the press. It was also during his studies that Larsson got to know Anders Zorn and Bruno Liljefors, together the three are usually called the ABC artists. At the end of the 1880s, Carl and Karin were given "Lilla Hyttnäs" in Sundborn outside Falun by Karin's father, and this is where Larsson's most famous watercolors depicting his family were created. The motifs often depict sunny landscapes with children, crayfish fishing, meals in the green and interior scenes. Larsson is represented, among other, in the National Museum, where "Gustav Vasas intåg i Stockholm" and "Midvinterblot" fills the stairwell. Represented mainly at the National Museum in Stockholm and at the Gothenburg Art Museum.
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