"…should it not be a sufficiently worthy goal to let people learn to recognize people through my pictures, how pretty a flower looks at the roadside, how charmingly a little girl's braids snuggle against her little round neck, how the rays of sunlight fall on the little nose … But it must be done as well as I possibly can, must be done with enthusiastic joy, with infinite care and deep sighs; and the end-result must be a victory; in it there must be visible no vagueness and yet no effort, it must beam forth to the viewer and fall like scales from the eyes: He should praise God and thank Him for all the beauty there is in this vale of tears and see in the promise and hint of the splendors that await him beyond the grave."
- Carl Larsson, Swedish illustrator/artist, in"Aims and Media" in Konst 1911