International studio (23.1904)

Carl Larsson



CORNER OF C. I.ARSSON’S STUDIO
of an artist, we have, however, in this case as
in so many others, to enquire oil est la femme,
and once more Larsson’s own good-natured ex-
planation serves us best, when he declares that
the principal reason why he abandoned imaginative
art at this time and turned to reality, was that he
“fell in love and became sound and sane.” In
this new stage of his development we soon see
him the acknowleged leader of the realistic art-
movement of the day. It was in this line,
expressive of the love for reality felt by his con-
temporaries, that Larsson was to gain fame and
laurels at numerous art exhibitions, in Europe and
in America, but especially
in Germany and in Paris.
Nevertheless, though he
had now submitted to a
formula in the choosing of
his motives, he remained
free in his style.
Instead of oil, which
he made use of for his
imaginative work, he now
painted exclusively in
water - colours, and his
pictures from this time
charm the beholder with
their soft and delicate
colouring, produced by a
method consisting in apply-
ing the colours unusually
wet. Uninfluenced by any
school or master he worked
out this style of his own
3°°

because he disliked the
usual “ dry way ” of paint-
ing in water-colour. This
adoption of a new method
was therefore a sequence
of that strongly marked
individuality to which we
have alluded.
There is nothing brilliant
or dashing in his art of
this period ; its keynote
is calm rest in idyllic
surroundings. But in the
course of years this idyll
becomes changed almost
into caricature, and we
begin with regret to ob-
serve that the artist is apt
to make a grin at reality.
We tire of his everlasting
depicting of a home life void of interest to our-
selves, in spite of the general public’s applause,
and feel sympathy with his little girls who cry
because “father paints them so ugly.” Then a
sudden change takes place ; the artist seems
to feel that he has come too near the reality he
formerly despised, and he saves his art by
developing a new style, in which realism is subor-
dinated to decorative principles. In portraiture,
his style becomes one of refinement.
It might be supposed that in his unceasing
endeavours to create new styles he would have
found it necessary gradually to develop them by

FROM A COLOURED DRAWING BY C. LARSSON

BY C. LARSSON

CORNER OF C. LARSSON’S STUDIO