The Artist's Studio, with Selfportrait

Additional texteExhibition text: Hugo Birger was one of Carl Larsson’s closest friends ever since they met at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm in the 1870s. Both were prominent members of the Swedish circle in Paris. Throughout his life, Birger was beset by various illnesses, but Larsson nevertheless describes him in his letters as being full of joie de vivre. He became notorious for squandering his entire travel allowance on his first night in Paris. This self-portrait was painted in the studio on Rue Gabrielle on Montmartre that Birger shared with Ernst Josephson.