In 1888, Swedish painter Carl Larsson and his wife, Karin, inherited a cottage in Sundborn, which they transformed into a vibrant home reflecting their artistic vision. Over 30 years, Lilla Hyttnas became a significant meta-art project featuring 14 rooms decorated with Karin's textiles and art, while Carl's iconic watercolors depicted family life. Their works, especially two influential books, helped shape Sweden's cultural identity, encapsulating an idealized view of Nordic rural life and family values, resonating with audiences worldwide.
Over three decades, the couple transformed the house, which they named Lilla Hyttnas, into an elaborate meta-art project, a hand-embellished 14-room home for their eight children.
Carl depicted them in more than a hundred Arts and Crafts-inflected watercolors, gamboling amid wildflowers and curled up in Gustavian chairs in rooms painted and stenciled in shades of ocher, crimson and teal.
His paintings, which he published reproductions of in books... helped form Sweden's national identity and imprinted on the world an indelible image of rural Nordic wholesomeness.
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