Idyll

This painting is undated, but it was probably made in Paris in 1880–82. The female model bears a resemblance to Gabrielle, the Frenchwoman with whom Carl Larsson lived in the years around 1880. This is almost the only work by Carl Larsson depicting contemporary Parisian life. Perhaps he had stolen a glance at his friend Hugo Birger’s paintings, which often featured women in fashionable outfits with or without an attending beau.