Front Lawn Fika (1927)
Glimpses of Our Past
Painted from an early family photograph, “Front Lawn Fika” captures a quiet moment in the lives of my recently immigrated Swedish family members. Seated at the table on the right is my grandfather, Victor Lundberg, with his young son Kenneth.  Beside Victor is his younger brother Albin, and on the left are another brother, Henning Lundberg, and his wife, Rosa.
What appears to be a field surrounding them was actually the family's front lawn. There they had stopped for fika, the distinctly Swedish tradition of setting aside time for coffee, conversation and something sweet. On their table are cups and saucers and traditional homemade cardamom bread. More than a simple coffee break, fika was a familiar custom they carried with them from Sweden into their new life in America—a tradition that remains an important part of Swedish culture today. Institutet för språk och folkminnen
The photograph also preserved one of the family's last moments with Albin. Shortly after it was taken, he returned to Sweden while seriously ill and died not long after his arrival. Painting the scene many decades later became a way of preserving more than an old photograph—the people, their relationships and the traditions they brought with them, captured during one ordinary family fika that became part of our family's story.