Background, 1914-15

Ulwa Neergaard gives the following description in her book about Carl Larsson: “On the 1st of March 1914, Carl Larsson had resigned from his commission to decorate the last remaining wall space by the staircase at the National Museum. Instead, he decided to take a risk and paint Midvinterblot [Midwinter sacrifice] and in May that year he put up the almost fourteen-metre long canvas around the walls of his studio in Sundborn. From this point on he is entirely devoted to Midvinterblot”. The work took up all of his time and demanded resources. Models, canvases and paint were costly, and in addition to this, he made trips in order to do detailed studies. A stable source of income, however, was the commissions from Fritzes Kungliga Bokhandel, whose clients wanted watercolours and life studies.
Midvinterblot was first exhibited in June 1915 at the National Museum. The criticism was unbelievably harsh and the reception of Midvinterblot has been described as a personal tragedy for Carl Larsson. The imagery, with a naked king sacrificing himself at Uppsala temple for the good of the people, was considered inappropriate and not befitting the National Museum. “The fate of Midvinterblot broke me! This I admit with subdued rage. Yet it was for the best, once again my intuition tells me that now – for this painting, with all its weaknesses, will be honoured with a far better place someday after I am gone.”

The year 1915

It is against this backdrop that we may view and interpret the painting in the auction, Kersti 19 år. The piece was executed in 1915 when Carl Larsson was in the middle of working on the momentous Midvinterblot. Studies for the painting were scattered throughout the studio, and melancholic thoughts and economic worries were weighing him down. The portrait of his youngest daughter Kersti, who was 19 at the time, was done in the so-called ‘Workshop’ at Lilla Hyttnäs. The room in question was originally used as his main studio, before his new, larger studio (the biggest one at that time in Sweden) was inaugurated on New Year’s Eve 1899. In connection with this Karin Larsson moved her looms into the old space, and it came to be known thereafter as the ‘Workshop’. The room, which also functioned as a living room for the whole family, is still today dominated by the yellow-coloured tongued, grooved and beaded panels on the walls and the green joinery. The interior was both unruly and practical. In one of the corners, there was a red-painted sofa, built into the wall, and a pillar containing a cabinet for paints. Above the sofa the glass painting Ett lustvandrande par i ett historiskt landskap hanged, depicting Karin and Carl Larsson (see photo from the Carl Larsson house).

In the present painting it is Kersti that is depicted, seated quietly in profile on one of the blue-painted 18th-century chairs. The chair has been placed in the corner against the side of the red-painted sofa, and we glimpse the glass painting to the left of a striking bouquet of flowers. Kersti is wearing a dress made by Karin. Her beautifully braided hair arrangement forms a pattern that is in harmony with the scrolling shapes of the bouquet and testifies to Carl Larsson’s unique talent in translating the language of lines. The picture hanging above Kersti’s head is a caricature and creates, with its black colouring and sharp frame, a contrasting effect to Kersti’s soft and billowing form and the sheer fabric of her dress. His otherwise so typical well-defined black outlining is subdued here. Instead, it is the burning ochre, which makes up the background and which frames Kersti in her contemplative position that creates the contrast. This generates a feeling of painterly warmth as opposed to Larsson’s more stylised work. In this almost pre-Raphaelite composition, there is not that exaggerated sentimentality for which Larsson was sometimes criticised. The strong colours and the bold format contribute to revealing Kersti 19 år as one of Larsson’s most modern paintings. Carl Larsson did not feel obliged to change his visual language in line with changing tastes in art, and he remained faithful to his artistic vision throughout his life. Little did he know that this love letter to his daughter would become a timeless work of art that is equally at home on the history-saturated walls of Lilla Hyttnäs as it is in a modern art gallery.