Carl Larsson's house : from log cottage to total work of art

Carl and Karin Larsson, through their combined artistic efforts, shaped their home of Lilla Hyttnäs in Sundborn into a unique creation. After more than a hundred years of shifting styles and fashions, it is still probably the world's most published dwelling.

For Carl Larsson, this ideal home was a compensation for his own impoverished childhood in the Stockholm slums. Together with Karin, he created a model of a light, beautiful and comfortable everyday environment, within everyone's means and accessible to children as well as adults. A play on different styles gave each room an individual character. The overall result was a life-affirming setting that combined a sense of well-being and creative joy with practical innovations.

Despite their highly personal character and the international parallels that existed, both Carl Larsson's art and his home of Lilla Hyttnäs quickly came to be regarded as something typically Swedish. Today, we can more easily see the house as a product of the couple's own creativity and of their international experiences. It was a home fashioned under the influence of several sources of inspiration, from Swedish peasant art, via English domestic ideals, to Japanese woodblock prints.