is the one called "Apple-Bloom" with a Larsson child in a pink sunbonnet
clinging to the slim stem of a young apple-tree; in the distance some
long low red buildings behind a board fence, in the foreground the pale
green of spring grass; there is the one in which the larger part of the
picture is filled with delicate field growth, thin sprays of pink, blue
and white blossoms, and long slender leaves, at the top of the canvas a
little thicket of trees with a small bright head peering between the
branches; there is the one in which a baby lies on the greensward under
the trees; each has an indescribable charm of individuality. Doubtless
resembling a hundred other groves or meadows, these have an expression
of their own distinguishing them from their kind. It is the genius of
the close observer for discrimination between like things.

Whatever the subject, the treatment is always brilliant, frank and
joyous. Larsson's brushwork is light and flowing; he has, indeed, a
certain French vivacity of technique, but his motives and his personal
point of view are so purely Scandinavian as to leave no other impression
on the mind. Nor is he merely the painter of the Swedish type. He is the
painter of intimate home life and character as found within his own
walls. Hardly any other family in Sweden is known so well as his, and
the variety and enthusiasm of his mind lend spontaneity to these
domestic pictures, so that one does not easily tire of the strong
smiling creatures naturally and effectively presented to our vision.

In the field of mural decoration also he has shown marked originality.
Under the encouragement of Mr. Pontus Furstenberg, one of the foremost
patrons of art in Sweden, he tested himself on a series of paintings for
a girl's school in Gothenburg. He accomplished his task in a manner
entirely his own, taking for his subjects typical figures of women in
Sweden at different periods of history--a Viking's widow; the holy
Brigitta; a noble house mother of the time of the Vasas, etc.--but
although his manner of painting was free and blithe it hardly satisfied
the most severe critics on account of its lack of architectonic
qualities and the absence in it of anything like monumental simplicity.
He has continued, however, to go his own way in mural decoration and
holds to the principle that the walls should look flat and that the
harmony of color and line should be balanced and proportioned with
regard to decorative and not