Carl Larsson Swedish, 1853-1919

Munich and travelling, Åt Solsidan, 1909-1914 (see Neergaard, vol. I, p. 437)
Stockholm, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Larsson – Liljefors – Zorn, 1916, no. 460
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Carl and Karin Larsson: Creators of the Swedish Style, 1997-98, no. 164, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Carl Larsson, Åt Solisdan, Stockholm, 1910, illustrated 
Görel Cavalli-Björkman and Bo Lindwall, The World of Carl Larsson, La Jolla, California, 1982, p. 178, illustrated in colour
Ulwa Neergaard, Carl Larsson. Signerat med pensel och penna, Stockholm, 1999, vol. II, p. 70, no. 1341, catalogued; vol. I, p. 431, illustrated in colour

One of fourteen watercolours that Larsson executed as illustrations for Åt solisdan (On the Sunny Side) published in 1910, the present work depicts the Old Room at Lilla Hyttnäs in Sundborn.

The construction of the Old Room in 1901 at Larsson's country idyll at Lilla Hyttnäs coincided with Carl and Karin and their seven children living there on a permanent basis. Until then, the Larssons had mostly only used the house and studio in the summer. Their move there followed twelve years of development, during which time Carl and Karin had transformed the property both inside and out from humble cottage to artist's residence.

Karin'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, and Karin's father gave the property to the Larssons. Very quickly, Carl and Karin began to make changes and additions. In 1890 Larsson built a studio on to the house, thanks in part to a bequest from Karin's father who had died earlier that year. A porch was also added to the main entrance. Then in 1899 a new and significantly larger free standing studio was built, the old studio becoming the workshop, a multi-purpose space, where Karin set up her weaving looms and which on occasion was also used for entertaining. Finally, in 1901, to allow for the Larssons to live at Lilla Hyttnäs all year round, connecting rooms were constructed between the old cottage and the new studio. On the ground floor these rooms comprised a washing room, a maid's chamber, a boy's room and a bathroom. On the upper floor was a room for the eldest daughter Suzanne, and the Old Room, which was used as a guest bedroom and a repository for all the old things that Larsson, Karin and their children had accumulated over the years. 

Åt Solsidan was one of a series of lifestyle books presented in words and watercolours by Larsson over a twenty year period. Each book contained between twenty-four and thirty-two colour plates and documented the charmed existence that Larsson and his family enjoyed in the country. The first, De min (My Family), appeared in 1895. This was followed in 1899 by Ett hem (At Home), then three years later by Larssons. In 1906 came Spadarvet (My Little Farm). Following the publication of Åt Solsidan in 1910, Larsson's final illustrated book was Andras Barn (Other People's Children) in 1913. 

To accompany the present watercolour reproduced in Åt Solsidan, Larsson wrote the following text: 'The Antiquity (Old) room. That’s what we call it, because that’s where all the old things I have dug up are stored and classified and yet everything has some practical use.  It is actually the guest-room of the house, because this is where travellers and visiting friends and others can crawl inside those old Friesian wall-panels, where a bed is supposed to be located and actually is, where you can see Esbjörn changing his shirt at the moment, balanced on the bolsters.  There are all sorts of things here: old Flemish paintings, wardrobes, chests, and tables from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a tea-table with a painting by Elias Martin, a chandelier from the time of Gustav III and Emilia Högqvist’s mirror from Framnäs, an old clock and old books, a remarkable little spice-cabinet and a rococo night-stool…the blue object over there, and old coins.' (Görel Cavalli-Björkman and Bo Lindwall, The World of Carl Larsson, La Jolla, California, 1982, p. 178)

As well as Larsson's son Esbjorn, among those who slept in the recessed box bed in the Old Room was Prins Eugen, who stayed one night at Lilla Hyttnäs in March 1902. Larsson recorded the event in pen and ink and wash and gave it to the Prince as a momento of his visit (fig. 1). Thereafter the prince's name headed the list of guests inscribed on the doors of the bed, a permanent record of the many celebrated visitors to Sundborn.