Open-Air Painter. Winter-Motif from Åsögatan 145, Stockholm

Carl Larsson’s monumental painting Open-Air Painter has been seen as a manifesto for Nordic outdoor realism, which came into style in the 1880s. In addition to being a comment on the new practice of painting outdoors, it illustrates the repercussions this had on Scandinavian artists, who were now expected to work directly before their subject even in the cold winter. This specifically Nordic dimen…