"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, 120 av. des Champs Elysées, Paris; private collection; Bukowski Auktioner, Stockholm, Sale 410, "Vårauktionen", 25 - 28 April 1979, lot 291; private collection (acquired at the above Sale); Bukowski Auktioner, Stockholm, Sale 577, "Klassiska Höstauktionen", 3 December 2013, lot 52; private collection.
Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, "Carl Larsson-Bruno-Liljefors-Anders Zorn", 9 July - 17 August 1930, no. 33; Petit Palais Musee des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, "Carl Larsson. L'imagier de la Suède", 7 March - 7 June 2014.
"Carl Larsson. Skildrad av honom själv i text och bilder. En krönika sammanställd av Harriet och Sven Alfons", 1952, illustrated p. 93; "Carl Larsson: JAG -En bok om och på både gott och ont", 1985, illustrated full page in colour p. 44; 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; "Carl Larsson. L'imagier de la Suède", exhibition catalogue, Petit Palais. Musée de la Ville de Paris, 2014 listed in the catalogue p. 182 and illustrated full page in colour p. 161.
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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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