Carl Larsson
"Suzanne på förstubron"
Signed C.L in circle and dated 1910. Watercolour 51 x 73.5 cm.
Provenance
Suzanne och Petrus Ranström, Älfkarleby.
Därefter deras son Tage Ranström.
Åmells konsthandel, Stockholm.
Privat samling, förvärvad från ovanstående.
Exhibitions
Berlin, 1910 (enligt Ulwa Neergaard).
Helsingfors och Åbo, Carl Larsson-utställningar, 1913, kat. nr. 70.
Charlottenborg, Köpenhamn, ”Svenska Konstutställningen”, november-december 1916, kat. nr. 443.
Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm, ”Carl Larsson. Minnesutställning”, mars-april 1920, kat. nr. 240.
Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm, ”Carl Larsson – 100 år, Minnesutställning”, 1953, kat. nr. 320.
Lunds Konsthall, ”Carl Larsson”, 1970‑71, kat. nr. 94.
Göteborgs konstmuseum, ”Carl Larsson”, april 1971, kat. nr. 89.
Amos Anderssons Konstmuseum, Helsingfors, ”Carl Larsson”, oktober 1981-januari 1982, kat. nr. 64.
The Brooklyn Museum, New York, ”Carl Larsson”, november 1982-januari 1983, kat. nr. 47.
Blaafarvevaerket, Modum, Norge, ”Sommaren med Carl Larsson”, 1989, kat. nr. 68.
Århus Art Museum, Århus, Danmark, ”Julen med Carl Larsson”, november 1989-januari 1990.
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, ”Carl Larsson”, februari-maj 1992, kat. nr. 99.
Göteborgs konstmuseum, ”Carl Larsson”, juni–september 1992, kat. nr. 99.
Yamato Transport Co. LTD, Fine arts Division, Japan, ”Exhibit Carl Larsson”, 1994, kat. nr. 49.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, ”Carl and Karin Larsson: Creators of the Swedish Style”, oktober 1997-januari 1998, kat. nr. 104.
Tikanojas konsthem, Vasa, Finland, 2003.
Bergen Konstmuseum Norge, 2005.
Kunsthalle der Hypo Kulturstiftung, München, 2006.
Literature
Hans-Curt Köster, Carl Larssons värld/The world of Carl Larsson, 1982, avbildad i färg, s. 144.
Torsten Gunnarsson (red.), Carl Larsson, 1992, omnämnd och avbildad i färg, s. 53.
Michael Snodin & Elisabet Stavenow-Hidemark, Carl and Karin Larsson: Creators of the Swedish style, 1997, omnämnd och avbildad i färg, s. 41.
Ulwa Neergaard, Carl Larsson: signerat med pensel och penna, 1999, avbildad i färg s. 453, samt listad och beskriven i verksförteckningen, s. 128 som kat. nr 1372.
More information
“Suzanne på förstubron” has something incredibly restful and peaceful about it. We see (barely) the head of the artist’s daughter Suzanne sticking up behind the red planks of the porch and the door to the house is ajar. The composition of the watercolour is bold and exciting for the viewer as there is no central perspective as far as the eye can see and the model is not the focus. Instead the entrance to the house is set at the edge of the subject and the viewer’s eye is drawn more to the colourful flowerbed than the model.
Karin Larsson’s work on the garden at the couple’s cottage of Lilla Hyttnäs has recently garnered attention and admiration for its innovative and modern design. The garden demonstrates Karin Larsson’s sense of colour and design also outside the home and was an important space for the new Arts and Crafts ideal that the Larssons embraced. In the painting we see cress, a fuchsia and a glorious Agapanthus beautifully composed in front of Lilla Hyttnäs.
The work in the catalogue has been exhibited at a number of important exhibitions of Carl Larsson’s art since the very year it was painted, 1910. His daughter Suzanne owned it until her death when it was inherited by her son Ture Ranström.
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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