Words Chris Hartman Photography Mattias Edwall

Published in No 16

The German term Gesamtkunstwerk — a total work of art — perfectly captures the ambition of artists Carl and Karin Larsson with their home — designed to create a harmonious whole, and to make it a place of democratic expression — exuding both simplicity and functionality. Like contemporary design reformers William Morris and John Ruskin, they believed that beauty was not a luxury, but rather a necessity of life — that should be available to everyone.

Lilla Hyttnäs, the home of Carl and Karin Larsson, located in Sundborn, Sweden, three hours northwest of Stockholm, is a bold example of a rejection of artistic conventions. As Sweden’s best-loved artists, they were both keenly interested in the English Arts and Crafts movement of the day (the 1880s), and several rooms subsequently added on their original log cottage were infused with this aesthetic.

Karin (nee Bergöö) Larsson was from a prominent family, while Carl had a comparatively poor upbringing where he lived with his mother and grandmother. His father was absent much of the time, and his younger brother John died early, likely from tuberculosis. According to Catharina Enhörning, a curator for the Larsson Family Association, based at Lilla Hyttnäs, one of Carl’s teachers noticed that he had great potential as an artist, and so he sent Carl to study and practice his art. Carl worked as an illustrator from the time he was 14 years old.

Karin had a solid educational background, and traveled from her family’s home in Hallsberg to Stockholm to study when she was 14. She was a good, but not great student due to challenges she had with her writing. But she showed great promise as an artist and attended a few different institutions, including the Slöjdskolan (handicrafts school) and, like her husband, also attended the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts.

At the Royal Academy, Carl Larsson was a member of the “Opponents,” young academy students that had emigrated to Paris and encountered Realist ideals of modern art. In 1885, when they were rebuffed by the Academy in demanding a modernization in the Academy’s teaching, they held two exhibitions of their own in Stockholm, which represented the introduction of French Symbolism to Sweden.

In 1882, Karin traveled to France to study art with another artist, Julia Beck. There were not many Swedish and Scandinavian artists in Paris at this time and, during that summer, Carl and Karin met and fell in love at Grez-sur-Loing, the artist colony south of Paris where they were residents.

Carl wrote to Karin’s parents and asked if he could propose to their daughter. Karin’s parents had never met Carl, but they wrote back that they trusted their daughter, and that he was welcome to wed Karin. They married in June 1883, and then returned to Grez-sur-Loing to continue to work on their art. From this, it’s clear that Karin was raised in a modern way by open-minded parents.

Lilla Hyttnäs was very tiny at the beginning. They received the house as a gift from Karin’s father, Adolph Bergöö, and it was initially four rooms and a kitchen. The Larssons decided to settle in the rural village of Sundborn because it reminded them of their artist colony outside of Paris. They next commenced building sections on the house — the last one completed in 1912 called the “Miner’s Cottage.” At first, they spent summers and the occasional Christmas season there, but settled permanently in 1900.

They began their additions with a studio for Carl, as he needed more room to create. The original studio then became Karin’s for her textile work. She acquired a loom in 1903, and that fostered a spirit of experimentation with the fabrics she created.

As to the home’s construction, Karin was the “project leader” — overseeing the carpenters and other contractors from the local village who built the additions. As to Carl’s versus Karin’s influence on the home’s design scheme, Karin was free to design on her own — textiles primarily. But as to the construction itself, the couple collaborated closely from the commencement of any new rooms being added. But she couldn’t check all the time with Carl — such as when he was away at exhibitions — so she would then make the decisions.

By this time, all eight of their children had been born. Eight children in 16 years, beginning in 1884. Enhörning says Karin found it easier to work “not being pregnant all the time.” Carl traveled quite a lot during these years. He would go to France, Italy, England, Denmark and Germany for exhibitions and commissions. As for Karin, she created what came to be known as the Sundborn Blanket, which she exhibited; however, Enhörning added that “Curators never talk about Karin presenting her work in exhibitions. This was an exception.” Karin made her textiles chiefly for the house, for family, relatives and neighbors. For example, she once made a pillow for their close friends, painter Anders Zorn and his wife Emma. But she was not an artist in the traditional sense.

In discussing how Carl and Karin’s personalities complemented each other in their lives and work, Carl, for his part, liked being in the center of discussions. At parties, he had a lot of visitors, and was very effusive, whereas Karin was more reserved — shy, even. One of their sons-in-law described Karin as the equivalent of the sun, in that she was the center of the household and everyone and everything in the home revolved around her — she was the quiet inner strength of the family.

Karin was an important collaborator with Carl in his exhibiting — serving primarily as curator in the placement of his paintings. There was a great mutual respect between Carl and Karin. For example, in the studio one morning — when Carl typically signed his paintings – Carl and Karin were discussing a painting that Carl had just finished, and she told him that he shouldn’t touch it anymore — that it was “perfect.” That she could prevail on Carl’s work in this way — he and Anders Zorn were the two most famous artists in Sweden and among the most famous in the world at the time — it typified that kind of respect between Karin and Carl.

But there were also challenges alongside the successes. Looking at Carl’s paintings depicting an idyllic family life, one wonders, were they really that happy all the time? Carl’s temper could occasionally be a bit short, and toward the end of his life, he was not feeling well and was depressed (he had intermittent bouts of depression during his life). He had headaches and trouble with his eyes, and in January of 1919 he had a stroke — only weeks before he died. Living with someone who is depressed and gloomy is not easy. But he and Karin had 40 years together, eight children, and curated their amazing home — evidence of a genuine, deep love between them.

The Larssons were true “internationalists.” For example, a recessed bed in the home’s “Old Room” has a Navajo patterned bedspread. Karin was very intrigued with the Navajos and their design aesthetic. And the Larssons’ library contained thousands of books in English, German and French, in addition to Swedish. But unlike Anders Zorn, who toured U.S. cities like Chicago and painted portraits of three U.S. presidents, Carl and Karin never actually went to the U.S. And though they had never been to Japan either, they were very fond of Japanese art. There are several examples of Japanese woodblock printing throughout the home.

Adding to their international connections was Karin’s sister Stina (Bergöö) Bather, who was married to Londoner Frank Bather, and was active in the English suffrage movement. As to the Larssons and the suffrage movement generally, Enhörning says that when Carl was about 25 years old, he wrote that he thought women should not be artists — he was quite conservative; but once his daughter Lisbeth returned from visiting her aunt and uncle in London in 1910, he painted a portrait of her in her green dress and hat. Green and purple were the dress colors of the suffrage movement in England. Carl subsequently wrote about the painting, but didn’t disparage the movement, suggesting that he was perhaps more sympathetic to women’s rights than he previously was.

Carl Larsson’s studio, one of the most striking rooms in Lilla Hyttnäs, includes a backdrop, Schoolboys’ Prayers at Ladugårdsgärdet, a design for Larsson’s 1901 fresco at the Norra Latin Grammar School in Stockholm. The seven-meter-wide fresco features portraits of friends and family of the Larssons, including Larsson himself with his daughter Kersti on his shoulders; Swedish Prince Eugen; and Larsson’s own mother. There is also what appears to be an altar in the center, adorned with a bust of Larsson himself by sculptor Christian Eriksson.

In 1899, Carl Larsson’s paintings of the family home were published in the Swedish publication Ett hem (At Home), which is considered the first Swedish “at home” feature — composed by the actual creators of the home. In it, the illustrations of the home made Larsson’s paintings immediately recognizable. The scenes he painted of his family, the home, and its Sundborn setting made the Larssons something akin to a national treasure. Larsson also admitted that Karin had given him the idea of depicting their home.

As for their legacy in Sweden, their popularity and perpetuation of Swedish national identity, tradition and history was so profound that tourists were visiting the home even while they were living there, and the children would be the ones to show them around the studio. They were famous in their own time — not unlike superstar artists. When Carl published his books, which included paintings and other art from the home, he mentioned the children liberally throughout, so that they became famous as well. Larsson’s success was promoted not least by the fact that the watercolors from his home were depicted in albums and printed in his books, with accompanying text. The first and most important of these was A Home, which appeared in 1899 and employed a graphic linear style with coherent blocks of color, akin to both Japanese art and Art Nouveau design.

Over the past 15 years, the Family Association has collaborated with Swedish companies like Ikea which, 12 years ago, crafted a reproduction of the rocking chair Karin designed for the studio. She added that Ikea comes back to the house every year, and they always find inspiration for new products based on the Larssons’ creations. And as Ikea is situated throughout the world, this once again demonstrates how international the Larssons still are.

Lilla Hyttnäs, with its largely Falu-red exterior, has been preserved exactly as it was at the time of Karin Larsson’s death in 1928. In the 1940s, the artist Otto Carlsund described Lilla Hyttnäs as “the quintessence of every Swedish home, quite simply the Swedish home.” It is effectively a national shrine dedicated to the Swedish national identity the Larssons were so influential in establishing and perpetuating.

Discover more artist homes and studios at Artist Studio Museum.

Learn more at Carllarsson.se This feature is supported by Tavolozza Foundation.

Chris Hartman is a regular contributor to UD. Authory.com/ChrisHartman

Mattias Edwall is based in Stockholm, Sweden. mattiasedwall.com @mattiasedwall

This feature has been made possible by the support of the Tavolozza Foundations.