Carl Larsson (Swedish, 18531919)
Kerstis Birthday, 1909
Puzzle size 24 x 18 in.

Born into poverty, Carl Larsson (Swedish, 18531919) earned a scholarship at the Stockholm Academy of Fine Arts, and, afterward, supported himself as a commercial illustrator. His career in fine art, in which his ambitions tended toward the monumental and allegorical, was lackluster. This changed when he met his future wife, artist Karin Berg. Under her influence, he began to produce light, bright watercolors, modest in scale and subject, for which he is now famous. As shown by the image represented here, Carl Larsson delighted in rendering the cottage and its inhabitants in loving, lighthearted watercolors that document the familys idyllic country life.