The sculptor Gottfrid Larsson was born in 1875 in Vallerstad, Östergötland, and passed away in Stockholm in 1947. He was a contemporary and close friend of Carl Milles and primarily worked as a portrait and monumental sculptor, with an emphasis on depictions of manual workers. From 1920 to 1932, he ran an art school in Stockholm together with the painter Edward Berggren, but he remained actively involved in the art scene of Östergötland.

Gottfrid Larsson's wife, Karen Larsson Waaler, founded the Gottfrid Larsson Museum in Vadstena as a museum for her husband's collection of sculptures, comprising approximately 125 objects.