- 28
Carl Larsson
Description
- Carl Larsson
- My Country Cottage in Winter, Sundborn
- signed with initials and dated C.L. 1904 lower right
- watercolour, gouache and charcoal on paper
- 64.5 by 99cm., 25½ by 39in.
Provenance
Private Collection, USA
Private Collection, Portugal
Purchased by the present owner in Stockholm in 1996
Exhibited
New York, The American Art Galleries & Chicago, The Art Institute, Exhibition of Contemporary Scandinavian Art, 1912-13, no. 13
Literature
Condition
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."
Catalogue Note
The majority of Larsson's depictions of family life in Sundborn feature the cottage's interior. But as Lilla Hyttnäs evolved through Carl and Karin's extensions to the property - a new studio, extra sleeping quarters, additional outbuildings - and the property increased in stature, so Larsson returned at intervals to record its main approach and front entrance.
Karin Larsson's father had originally purchased Lilla Hyttnäs in 1875 for his widowed mother and her two sisters, Ulla and Maria. When Ulla died in 1888 Maria moved out, Karin's father gave the property to his daughter and son-in-law. But when Karin and Carl took on the property as their summer residence they found little to recommend it beyond the site itself, and the possibilities inherent in the house. It was perched on what Carl called a slag heap, and was accompanied by a couple of lilac bushes, some birch trees and a potato patch.
Despite this, the Larssons started making changes and additions. In 1890 Larsson added a first studio on to the house, financed in part by a bequest from Karin's father who had died earlier that year. A porch was also added to the main entrance. Then in 1899 the new and significantly larger free standing studio was built, the old studio becoming the workshop, where Karin set up her weaving looms and which on occasion was also used for entertaining. Until 1901 the Larssons used the house just during the warm summer months and for Christmas, but that year connecting rooms were constructed between the old cottage and the new studio to enable the family to live at Lilla Hyttnäs all year round (fig. 1).
The recording of the improvements to Lilla Hyttnäs became a central theme in Larsson's work, and one that through his watercolours, illustrated books and writings brought him considerable financial success. Certainly, by the time the present work was painted, the Larssons had created an idyll of domestic harmony that has since come to represent Swedish style the world over.