Lisbeth Angling. From A Home (26 watercolours)

Lisbeth Angling is one of the twenty-six watercolours of Carl Larsson's Sundborn home published as Ett hem in 1899, though it depicts the outdoor world immediately adjacent to the house rather than an interior space. Lisbeth was one of Larsson's daughters, and the image of a girl fishing is both a portrait of his child and an extension of the domestic narrative into the surrounding natural environment. The stream or pond at Sundborn was a recurring presence in Larsson's depictions of family life, providing a setting for outdoor play and relaxation that balanced the carefully designed interior spaces of the house. The image belongs to a tradition of child-in-nature genre painting, but Larsson personalizes it absolutely through the specific identity of the child and the recognizable Sundborn setting. The Nationalmuseum holds the complete series.

Watercolour on paper with the bright, high-keyed palette Larsson used for outdoor subjects — clear blues, greens, and whites that differ from the warmer, more enclosed tones of the interior images. The outdoor setting invites a looser, more expansive handling of space, though Larsson's precise line continues to anchor the figure with characteristic clarity.