The Bridge. From A Home (26 watercolours)

The Bridge. From A Home depicts the small wooden bridge over the Sundborn stream that was a functional and picturesque feature of the Lilla Hyttnäs property. Bodies of water and the structures built to cross them had a significant place in the Larsson visual universe: the Sundborn stream appeared throughout his work, providing reflections, fishing opportunities (as in the crayfishing watercolor), skating in winter, and the ambient sound and movement of flowing water that characterize the Swedish countryside. A bridge, moreover, is both practical infrastructure and a threshold — a passage between parts of the property — and its inclusion in the Et hem series contributed to the sense that the series was documenting a complete world, with boundaries and passages, not merely a set of attractive rooms. The watercolor's outdoor setting required Larsson to handle the specific challenge of running water in afternoon light.

Transparent watercolor with careful handling of water reflections — one of the medium's most demanding subjects. The bridge's wooden structure provides a geometric anchor for the organic shapes of stream and vegetation around it. The soft Swedish summer light filtering through trees overhead creates the dappled conditions Larsson renders with characteristic mastery.