Carl Larsson
"Venus och Tummelisa"
Signed C.L. and dated 1904. Canvas 250 x 345 cm.
Exhibitions
Stockholm, "Konstnärsförbundets minnesutställning 1885-1905", 1905, cat no 2.
Liljevalchs, Stockholm, "Carl Larssons minnesutställning", 6 March -5 April 1920, cat no 196.
Liljevalchs, Stockholm, "Sveriges allmänna konstförening 150 år", 2 April - 16 May 1982, cat no 234.
Literature
Ulwa Neergaard, "Carl Larsson. Signerat med pensel och penna", 1999, illustrated in colour p 326 and listed in the catalogue under year 1904, p 120 as no 1110.
More information
Denna målning som utfördes 1904 var redan från början tänkt bli en vävnad när Handarbetets Vänner beställde den av Carl Larsson. Motivet visar hur Venus under en upptäcktsfärd i skogen finner på Tummelisa seglandes på ett näckrosblad förspänt med en fjäril. 1909 översattes målningen till bildväv inför Stockholmsutställningen samma år och den kom därefter att ställas ut världen över. Vävnaden kom 1989 i Nationalmuseums ägo där den finns idag.
Artist
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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