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Swedish Painter Captures ‘The Sunny Side of Life’
My
daughter Rosemary and her husband Paul, with whom I live, have
just returned from a fascinating European vacation. Among the interesting
points encountered on their visit, many were with Paul’s Swedish
relatives.
In Sweden, one interesting place was the National Museum in
downtown Stockholm,
where they encountered — for the first time — the works of Swedish
painter Carl Larsson (1853-1919).
Larsson was born in the slums of Stockholm and went on to become one of Sweden’s
most loved artists — famous throughout the world for his scenes of Swedish
life. The stunning watercolors of his home and his family during the end of the
19th century are acclaimed as one of the richest and most evocative records of
life at that time.
Carl Larsson and his wife Karin inherited a cottage from her father in 1888.
This cottage, which eventually became their home, was turned into a model known
as “Swedish Style,” for which it is still known as to this day. He
painted watercolor scenes of this house and his home life with Karin and their
eight children. His works represent the stereotypical images most travelers have
of Sweden.
Color reproductions of many of his paintings were put into books, accompanied
by his commentary about each painting. Rosemary and Paul brought home to me one
such book, entitled “The Sunny Side of Life.”
For Carl, his home symbolizes the happy environment where his family lived their
lives in harmony. In painting after painting, he portrays his wife and their
children in the sunny atmosphere of their home. In these paintings of home and
family, you can almost hear Larsson’s silent sermon, “Love children,
people, nature and things.”
The painter/author discusses one picture: “Martina is ringing the farmyard
bell. It’s high time – my mouth has been watering all this while.
How about you? Come on, we’re having potato dumplings and buttermilk.”
In another painting, three Swedish girls, Suzanne, Elsa and Lisabeth are sitting
in the drawing room “all hard at work” working on a trousseau and
chattering among themselves.
“I butted in [said Larsson] and painted them, and as I did, I said ‘Excelsior,’ a
grand word meaning something like ‘upward and onward.’” In
these paintings, as well as in the rest of the book, Larsson shows his ability
to capture simple moments as examples and models of a happy life.
Yet Larsson’s home is not static. He says: “A home is not dead, but
living, and like all living things, it must obey the laws of nature by constantly
changing. At least it can have a long life before finally coming to an end. I
would like to think of my home passing through the generations.”
The painter ruminates about change: “The best quality primeval slime longed
to break away, and finally, after eons, became the lancelet fish, the first one
to show signs of having a spinal column. And when the next lower grade of slime
began to be gobbled up by the higher form creature imposed on it, it was admired,
envied, and its quiet little mind threatened to become the same. And after an
unbearable long period of time, it really did become a lancelet, but meanwhile
the lancelet had turned into a happy, perky little lizard.”
Commentary such as this is made by the artist/writer on every page. Larsson was
in many ways a philosopher. He saw that life was whole and connected. He created
what might be called an entire lifestyle through his paintings, “a permanent
dream of Sweden and Swedishness,”… “a joyous cantata to sunlight,
life and love,” according to one critic.
He tells us at the end of this book: “And now, gentle reader and picture
peeper, now at last I am finished with the text for this book, which in words
and pictures seeks to depict the little of life’s colorful procession … a
book about rooms to live in, about children, about you, about flowers, about
everything: pictures and chit chat.”
This picture book invites us to use our imaginations to project our own families
and our own children into these light and happy scenes of a century ago, and
by so doing, find our own sunny side of life. In that way, we may also find the
harmony and tranquility as portrayed by Larsson so many years ago.
This page and its contents ©2008
Metropolitan News Company, Inc.
