The Author Selma Lagerlöf

The Author Selma Lagerlöf of 1902 is Carl Larsson's portrait of one of the most celebrated writers in Swedish history. Selma Lagerlöf, who became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1909, was a central figure in Swedish cultural life and a friend of Larsson's circle. She is best known for Gösta Berlings saga (1891) and The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1906-07), which drew on Swedish folklore and landscape with a lyrical intensity that paralleled Larsson's own celebration of Swedish domestic and rural life. That Larsson depicted her in charcoal rather than his characteristic brilliant watercolors is significant: the medium suited a psychological portrait of a writer rather than the joyful chromatic world of the Ett Hem series. Now in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, this portrait documents a meeting of two of Sweden's most beloved artists at the height of both their careers.

Charcoal is well suited to psychological portraiture, allowing precise rendering of the face's planes and subtle modeling of expression without the distraction of color. Larsson's line work is confident and economical.