A glimpse of Sweden

The “Petit Palais” (see previous post), housing the City of Paris Fine Art Museum, offers also temporary exhibitions. I attended the vernissage of one of those, dedicated to Carl Larsson, described as Sweden’s most beloved painter. There were some Swedish flags on the building and some of you may recognise the Crown Princess Victoria and her husband, who opened the exhibition.

I guess that internationally, Carl Larsson (1853-1919) may rather be recognised for paintings which are related to Christmas and, by some of you, more generally for illustrations of his home and family. His home at Sundborn in Swedish Dalecarlia can be visited (I have been a few times) and remains more or less as it was. Special honour should be given to his wife Karin, also an excellent painter, but especially the mother of their eight children and even more especially the interior designer of their home, creating this very particular style.

Carl and Karin met in France, where they spent several of their younger years. I made a post about the place where they – and many other artists – worked and lived at Grez-sur-Loing (see here). Some very nice paintings were made from this area south of Paris (the three, to the left, in the top row).

My personal memory of Carl Larsson is especially linked to a 50 square meter (540 square feet) wall painting, which I observed every morning during eight years in the Gothenburg school ”aula”, where we all gathered every morning for 15 minutes before the lectures commenced. (Carl painted a lot also in my home town, where he spent some years as art teacher.) The painting is named “Ute blåser sommarvind” (The summer wind is blowing).

The Carl Larsson exhibit at the “Petit Palais” with a large number of paintings and drawings from the Swedish National Museum, from the Larsson home at Sundborn and elsewhere, can be seen until June 7.  

And after the glimpse of Sweden, a glimpse of the Paris spring weekend, under blue sky and close to 20°C (some 65-70°F) - in the shadow (if you found it)!.