This unusual and beautiful book of watercolors by the painter Carl Larsson is treasured by both children and adults in his native Sweden.
The paintings were begun one rainy summer when Carl Larsson grew so restless and bored indoors that he began to paint everything around him just as he saw it: lush, green plants on the windowsill, a corner of the sitting room as he left it with Kapo, the dog, asleep next to his slippers and pipe, his children at work and at play, and many of the rooms in the house which he had lovingly designed and decorated in light, warm colors, an innovation for that period.
Lennart Rudström has made a careful selection from among the many paintings that Carl Larsson created at their summer home, Little Hyttnäs in Sundbord—portraits of his young son Pontus sulking, Suzanne and Kersti churning butter in the kitchen, the family swimming in the cold Sundborn River, the Crayfish Catch on Rumble Island.
Just as the constitute a story of a family, the delicate and detailed watercolors unfold the rare beauty and serenity of life in a small Swedish village at the turn of the century. But the paintings themselves explain why this book is a classic today and why it will continue to appeal to children and adults everywhere.
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