Urban Larsson, born on November 23rd, 1966 in Stockholm, has lived and worked as a professional painter in Amsterdam for the last 25 years.As well as portraits and figures, Urban paints still-lives and landscapes. He paints only from life and in a tradition that has evolved over more than four centuries - sight-size. Urban has exhibited extensively throughout Europe and in the United States.
The artist studied History of Art at the University of Stockholm for 1 ½ years, one year of Architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm and painting in Florence, Italy, at Studio Cecil & Graves. After his studies in Florence, he moved to Amsterdam to settle as a painter. By working sight-size, whereby the sitter or motif is viewed and painted in scale and focus at a given distance, Larsson aims for unity of effect and a sense of life in his paintings.
He regularly paints abroad and his international commissions have come from England, Spain, France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and the United States. Larsson’s portrait commissions are numerous and prestigious. He has, for example, painted the official portrait of the former Dutch Prime Minister W. Kok, the President of the House of Representatives of the States General, The Netherlands, Mrs G. Verbeet and the Honorable M. Barzun, the Ambassador of the United States to the United Kingdom.In 2013 he painted the official portrait of H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden for the Swedish National Gallery. In 2016 he painted full-length life-size portraits of H.M King Willem-Alexander and H.M. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands for Societëit de Witte, the Hague.
In February- April 2017 a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at Sven-Harry’s Museum, Stockholm, Sweden which travelled to The Mesdag Collection (van Gogh Museum) The Hague April – June.
A two-part documentary on Urban Larsson was broadcasted on Dutch national television network in May 2017.
Several of his paintings have been used as covers for books in the Netherlands. In the last years he has regularly taught portrait painting at Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy. He has also in recent years given many lectures on painting. In 2017 the book Urban LarssonPainting from Lifewas published. Previous books on his work, Urban Larsson paintings 1991-2006and Urban Larsson Paintings & Drawings, were published in 2007 and 2010 respectively.
Since April 2007, he is painting in the former studio of G. H. Breitner (1857-1923) on Prinseneiland, Amsterdam. He lives with his Dutch wife, Lara van Wassenaer, and their three children.
* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 14th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.
