Between Christmas and new year

LARSSON Carl (1853-1919)
1894

Pencil and watercolour

From the book Ett Hem (At home)

Larsson a Stockholm born Swedish painter and interior designer is a representative of the Arts and Crafts Movement. His many paintings include oils, watercolours, and frescoes. He considered his finest work to be his late Midvinterblot (Midwinter Sacrifice), a large painting now displayed inside the Swedish National Museum of Fine Arts.
In 1882 he met and married Karin Bergöö. They had eight children. In 1888 the young family was given a small house, named Little Hyttnäs, in Sundborn by Karin's father Adolf. Carl and Karin decorated and furnished this house according to their particular artistic taste and also for the needs of the growing family. Ett hem was published in 1899 and is full of these bright and very Scandinavian interiors. Above the door it says God's peace, a common Scandinavian term used at any time of the year as in closing a letter.

Coming South, Perth Station

EARL George (1824-1908)

1895

Oil on canvas

77.2 x 115.2 cms

National Railway Museum

This is the second of two pictures commissioned by Sir Andrew Barclay Walker of the Walker Brewery. The paintings are bustling narrative works depicting railway station life. Now owned by the National Railway Museum they were rescued in 1990 from a Liverpool pub (The Vines, Lime Street). Going North tells the story of a group of friends travelling from Kings Cross to Scotland for the summer grouse shooting season. The partner work seen here shows the group a month later at Perth Station, about to make their return journey. The works show much of the minutiae of Victorian station life and also include Earl's trademark sporting interests in the form of dogs and grouse. Earl was an early member of The Kennel Club. Although chiefly remembered as a canine artist due to his success depicting them, of the 19 paintings he exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1857 and 1882 only two were of dogs.

Going North, King's Cross Station

 

EARL, George (1824 – 1908)

1875, 1893

Oil on canvas

78 X 183 cms, 123 X 213 cms

Wigan Town Hall, National Railway Museum

 George Earl was an animal and sporting painter. He appears to have been a gentleman of some means as he had two residences, one at Newman Street, London, and the other at Banstead, Surrey. Many of Earl's sporting pictures featured Highland and shooting scenes, but he also painted horse portraits which displayed particularly soft coats and which were of the Victorian style of the day. Between 1856 and 1883, George Earl exhibited numerous paintings including Polo Match At Hurlingham at the Royal Academy. George Earl's daughter, Maud, inherited her father's artistic talents and went on to become a successful animal painter, as did his sons Percy and Thomas.