Portrait of the Artist’s Father 1903

Carl Larsson painted this portrait of his father, Olof, probably in oil. It's a cozy domestic scene – an old man in a rocking chair surrounded by familiar objects. I wonder what it was like for Larsson to paint his father. Was it an act of love, of duty, or maybe a bit of both? He captures a real sense of his father's presence, doesn't he? The way he sits in the chair, the look in his eyes... you get the feeling he was a man with a story to tell. See how the brushstrokes are loose and expressive. You can almost feel the texture of the old man's beard, the worn wood of the rocking chair, and the soft light filtering through the room. And that light, it's what connects everything in the painting. It bounces off the walls, the furniture, the old man's face, creating a sense of warmth and intimacy. Painters have been painting their fathers, mothers, and themselves for centuries, and that’s the connection between them, time, and us.