Carl Larsson, executed 1884. Watercolour and charcoal on paper glued on canvas
"Gycklare". 75 x 103 cm.
Paper laid down on board. Damages. Repairs.
Professor Carl Wahlund (1846-1913), Uppsala.
Kalmar Nation, Uppsala (deposited at Carolina Rediviva since 1986).
Ulwa Neergaard, ”Carl Larsson: signerat med pensel och penna”, 1999, listed in the catalogue under 1884, p. 25 cat no. 200.
Georg Pauli, ”Konstnärsbrev II”, Stockholm 1928, p.21f.
Börjeson, Bertil "Från Grèz till 'Bortom Bullret'. Några anteckningar om Kalmar Nations Carl Larsson-kartonger.", in Kalmar Nations skriftserie XXVII, 1950, p. 42-45.
Börjeson, Bertil, ”De nordiska konstnärernas jul i Paris 1882. Ett postscriptum till uppsatsen Från Grèz till Bortom bullret”, in Kalmar nations skriftserie XXIX, 1952, p. 30-36.
Nationalmuseum, Torsten Gunnarsson, "Carl Larsson, En utställning ingående i Nationalmuseums 200-årsjubileum", Stockholm, 1992, p 44
Gunnarsson, Torsten. (red.), The painters in Grez-sur-Loing, Tokyo, 2000.
Meister, Anna, Rech, Carina & Sidén, Karin (red.), Grez-sur-Loing: konst och relationer, Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm, 2019, p 173f.
Om kartongen "Gycklare" har vi inte så mycket upplysningar om och Spadas vers ger oss inte så mycket mer att gå på. Det vi vet är att episoden som avbildas går tillbaka på att det i staden Saint-Briac 1883 kom ett cirkussällskap vilket Carl Larsson tagit tillvara på. Mannen till vänster med trumman är Allan Österlind annars är ingen av karaktärerna namngivna.
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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