Carl Larsson: Not His Fault

The Swedish painter Carl Larsson was born on this day in 1853. His paintings of his family's idyllic home life can seem a touch sweet, but it's hardly surprising that he so cherished what he had when you consider the brutal beginning he had in life - see Biography here (and I love the title of his autobiography - Me). He was a formidable draughtsman and watercolorist, and it's not his fault that there's a direct path from his lovingly rendered interiors to the 'Swedish look' and thence all the way to the hell men call Ikea.