Highlights: Famous and Forgotten Art Treasures

Transcription

1
Highlights
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Nationalmuseum Stockholm
con t en t
7
Famous or Forgotten in
the Nationalmuseum’s Collections
m i k a el a h lu n d
16
163
Highlights
Selfies – Now and Then
m a rg a r e ta g y n n i ng
183 Artist index
in t roduc t ion
Famous or Forgotten in
the Nationalmuseum’s Collections
mik a el a hlu n d
H
ighlights: Famous and Forgotten Art Treasures from
Nationalmuseum presents a selection of the bestknown and most popular works in the Museum’s
collections – many of them eagerly awaited and in demand
during the present closure of the Museum for renovation. The
display features paintings, sculptures, applied arts and design.
Rubbing shoulders with French artists such as Paul Cézanne,
Auguste Renoir and Berthe Morisot are famous works by
Scandinavian fin de siècle painters like Anders Zorn, Bruno
Liljefors, Carl Larsson, Eva Bonnier, August Strindberg and
many others. In addition, gems from the older collections of
the Museum are presented, among them 17th-century Dutch
painters like Rembrandt and Judith Leyster, and 18th-century
French artists such as Jean Antoine Watteau, François Boucher
and Anne Vallayer-Coster. The exhibition also includes a
range of key works from the Nationalmuseum’s collection of
applied art and design – from the Renaissance to our own day.
Alongside Meissen porcelain and faience from Marieberg, for
instance, there are examples of modern design and works by
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contemporary Swedish and international applied artists
such as Michael Eden, Eva Hild and Frida Fjellman. Finally,
a section of the show takes a more in-depth look at portraits,
under the heading Selfies – Now and Then (p. 163).
At the same time as Highlights: Famous and Forgotten Art
Treasures from Nationalmuseum showcases a rich array
of celebrated paintings, sculptures and works of applied
art, it also poses the question why certain works of art have
become more renowned and popular than others. Words like
‘highlights’, ‘classics’ or ‘masterpieces’ are used frequently
– and often unquestioningly – in museum catalogues and
on art museums’ websites. But what in fact constitutes a
‘masterpiece’? Who decides? And how have views of such
works shifted through history?
Researchers, critics and writers have shown a great deal of
interest in recent decades in questions like these – questions
about what forces, past and present, have shaped and continue
to shape our view of art and its history. Such issues have
attracted particular attention in fields of research such as
museology and in discussions about an art-historical canon.
‘Canon’, in this context, means the creation of a view of
art history as a structured value hierarchy that gives certain
artworks and the oeuvre of certain artists a special position,
while regarding others as less significant and therefore
excluding or marginalising them. Two factors that have
been identified as important in forming such a canon are the
early art museums and the establishment of art history as a
discipline in the 19th century: in museum galleries and the
art-historical literature, a narrative of the history of art took
shape, in which artists of genius and individual masterworks
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were held up as fixed stars. Since then, a variety of forces
have continued to confirm and modify this art history of
masterpieces. What art museums choose to show, what
is given prominence in reference works on art history, and
in teaching in higher education, serves to bring certain
artists to the fore and tone down the significance of others.
There has been particular discussion in recent years of the
role of museums as a normative power factor. In this process
of creating, maintaining or modifying notions of art history,
a series of other factors also come into play – television
programmes, tourism and guidebooks, as well as the art
market and auction houses. All contribute in their various
ways to consolidating a ranking of artworks and artists.
Art museums, though, are a key player in this process – and
the Nationalmuseum is no exception. Highlights: Famous
and Forgotten Art Treasures from Nationalmuseum discusses
the road to stardom of individual works of art, as well as
presenting some that were once well known, but which,
for various reasons, have in recent times fallen more or less
into oblivion. Space is also devoted to a number of works
rarely or never before shown in the Museum – unknown but
fascinating pieces not previously recognised as ‘highlights’,
but which certainly deserve our attention.
The selection presented here thus represents a mixed bag
of art history, bringing together celebrated masterpieces and
forgotten or relatively unknown ones. A few examples can
serve to illustrate how different artists and works have stepped
into and out of the art-historical limelight. One is provided
by Rembrandt. The Nationalmuseum’s collection includes a
series of his paintings which for centuries have been accorded
the status of masterpieces – like The Kitchen Maid from 1651
(p. 36). But there are also works that have fallen from those
heights. The painting St Anastasius (p. 38) was long seen as
one of the important Rembrandts in the Museum’s possession.
It was admired and copied in the late 19th century by artists
such as Ernst Josephson, who maintained that he would
‘become Sweden’s Rembrandt or die’. But when, a hundred
years later, researchers put forward solid evidence that
Rembrandt could not be the artist behind this painting, its
status changed. Since then, it has not been shown as frequently
as before, and it is no longer in demand for prestigious international exhibitions. But it is still the same painting, with
the same qualities and the same subtle treatment of light as
were so admired by visitors to the Museum in the 19th and
20th centuries.
Other works have enjoyed celebrity status since they were
created, and have retained it to this day. François Boucher’s
painting The Triumph of Venus (p. 48) was first shown at the
Paris Salon of 1740 and was immediately praised to the skies
by contemporary critics. When Carl Gustaf Tessin brought the
painting to Sweden the following year, therefore, it was as an
internationally renowned masterpiece. As such, it eventually
came to occupy a central place in Sweden’s royal collections.
Referred to by the poet Carl Michael Bellman in the 18th
century and reproduced in the 19th on one of Gustavsberg’s
monumental urns, created for the Stockholm Exhibition of
1897, The Triumph of Venus consistently retained its lustre.
Ever since the painting was transferred to the Nationalmuseum
in 1866, it has been one of its best-known and most popular
artworks – constantly written about and reproduced in the arthistorical literature. Other 18th-century artists have charted a
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different course through history. Anne Vallayer-Coster was
the leading French still-life painter of the second half of that
century, becoming a member of the Royal Academy of Painting
and Sculpture in Paris in 1770. But in the art history books
of the 19th and 20th centuries she received scant attention
and was completely overshadowed by male artists such as
Jean-Siméon Chardin. Only in recent decades has her artistic
achievement once more been brought to prominence in international exhibitions. Since the Nationalmuseum acquired
one of her paintings in 1995 (p. 56), this newly discovered
visual world has lent a further dimension to the Museum’s
collection of French Rococo masters.
Sometimes, the reason the work of earlier, forgotten artists
is rediscovered is that their idiom and expression are found
to correspond to those of modern art. A work by the Dutch
genre painter Constantin Verhout, active in the 17th century,
is a case in point (p. 40). When his Sleeping Student was brought
to wider notice in the major Rembrandt exhibition in 1992,
interest in it was prompted by associations with a more modern
aesthetic – in the catalogue, it was pointed out that the
painting’s arrangement of piled-up books recalled the formal
language of 20th-century artists such as Giorgio Morandi.
From being a forgotten work relegated to the Museum’s store,
Verhout’s painting has since become popular, making frequent
appearances in the galleries of the Museum. A similar pattern
emerges regarding Ernst Josephson and Carl Fredrik Hill
(pp. 142 and 140), who attracted considerable interest in
the 20th century. The visual affinity between modern art and
the strange pictorial worlds these artists developed in their
periods of mental illness secured them a prominent place
in the historiography of art in Sweden during that century.
There are many instances of disparaged or marginalised
artists being reappraised in modern times and included in
an art-historical canon. Another Swedish example is August
Strindberg (p. 144). Although his painting did attract attention
during his lifetime, in the first half of the 20th century it
met with very limited interest and was regarded more as a
curiosity. Only from the 1960s on were his pictures taken
seriously, garnering constantly growing interest. In art
museums and exhibitions, and not least on the art market,
Strindberg’s paintings have now achieved an unprecedented
star status.
Yet another interesting example, and one that shows the
Nationalmuseum and the Swedish public to have been out
of step with their times, concerns the French Impressionists.
In the late 19th century, this radical artistic movement was
not what primarily caught the interest of Swedish artists or
travellers in France. For many Scandinavians, Realism and
the more moderate forms of plein-air painting remained the
most appreciated directions in French art. Not until the 1910s
and 1920s did Swedish collectors and curators have their eyes
opened to the Impressionists. Amidst the turmoil of a world
war, and in the years that followed, the Nationalmuseum
purchased several works by leading figures of the movement
(pp. 146–153). The Museum’s collection of French Impressionists
can thus be described, historically, as a post hoc reconstruction,
but in the 20th century and our own day it has attracted huge
interest.
The reasons and time frames for the celebrity of different
works and the special place they hold in the Nationalmuseum’s
collections can thus vary. Olof Arborelius painted his view of a
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lake at Engelsberg in 1893, and the work was bought for the
Museum the following year (p. 114). It has since been one
of the Museum’s best-loved paintings. Its designation by the
Swedish Tourist Association in 1935 as the quintessential
‘Picture of Sweden’ helped to make it famous, and in that
capacity the painting was reproduced in a host of different
contexts. It is also the work in the Museum’s collection most
often copied by visiting artists and art students.
One of Arborelius’s contemporaries had to wait longer for
recognition. Anna Boberg’s many stays in the Lofoten Islands
in Norway resulted in numerous paintings (p. 132). During
her lifetime, these depictions of mountain scenery, northern
lights and the midnight sun drew positive attention abroad,
but met with a cooler reception in Sweden. And for much
of the 20th century, her paintings were as a rule consigned
to the Nationalmuseum store – despite her being, without
comparison, the artist represented by most works in the
collection. Only in recent years has Boberg’s art once more
begun to attract notice in publications and exhibitions.
A similar pattern can be seen for several of the women artists
of the 19th century presented here – successful in their
lifetimes and yet excluded from the art history books of the
20th century, and only in recent decades beginning to regain
the interest of art historians and museums.
For their male counterparts, the tide has sometimes turned
the other way. Several of the artists regarded in the 19th
century as constituting the cream of the Museum’s collection
are now largely forgotten. A number of the Swedish history
and genre painters of that period for example, who in their own
lifetime enjoyed great prestige, have come to be overshadowed
by other artists and artistic directions. The great esteem
in which the 19th century held artists such as Johan Gustaf
Sandberg, Axel Kulle or other painters of the Düsseldorf
school has not been shared to the same extent by the publics
or museum curators of more recent times. Swedish applied
artists of the same century have suffered a similar fate.
Carl Hjalmar Norrström’s steel urn from the 1890s (p. 98) was
viewed with distaste by the modernist eyes of the 20th century
and was quickly banished to the darkness of the stores. But for
everything there is a season. For these artists, too, there may
be hope of stepping into the limelight again – as in the present
exhibition. The forces shaping the artistic canon, moreover,
can sometimes come from unexpected quarters. Among
the works featured in a new edition of the British book 1001
Paintings You Must See before You Die (2011), for instance, is
Johan Gustaf Sandberg’s King Gustav Vasa Addressing Men
from Dalarna in Mora from 1836 (p. 84).
A recurring reason why the work of a number of artists has
remained invisible for long periods is the simple fact that,
owing to limitations of space, the Museum has been unable
to display objects from its collections to the extent that would
be desirable. This is true, not least, of the collection of applied
art. Important works such as Ettore Sottsass’s Monument to
Mustard or Magdalena Abakanowicz’s textile sculpture Abakan,
for example, have rarely or never been shown at the Museum
since they were created in the 1960s and 1970s. A contributory
factor with these particular pieces has been their tremendous
size – and in the latter case perhaps a shift in taste since
the 1970s. All the more gratifying, then, that they can now be
brought into the spotlight again, in both the exhibition and
this publication (pp. 156 and 160).
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It is thus clear that what the Nationalmuseum and other art
galleries and museums do – or don’t do – with their collections
significantly affects how views of art history evolve and change.
A reasonable conclusion, then, is that this exhibition, too,
will help to consolidate – but hopefully also to modify – an
art-historical canon. Naturally, the works shown have a greater
chance of becoming well known than the ones that have been
excluded. But one aim here – besides exhibiting some of the
works from the Museum’s collections that are most in demand
– is to draw attention to less familiar artworks and artists, in
order to make room for them, too, in the public art-historical
space in which the Museum operates. And in order to show
that a canon is not simply a matter of conserving certain
established works seen as an inalienable part of our cultural
heritage, but rather something that must be constantly on
the move, shaped by new eyes, feelings and experiences.
An understanding of the forces that mould our notions of art
and its history – whether it be museums, art history writing,
guidebooks or sale catalogues – will hopefully make us all
more aware and better equipped in the face of claims about
what constitute ‘highlights’ or ‘masterpieces’. Our experience
of art arises in a personal encounter with each artwork.
Ultimately, it is the individual viewer who decides what is or
is not important.
Jarra or the Alhambra Vase, glazed
earthenware, mounts in bronze
and Kolmården marble
Granada end of 14th century, mounts
Stockholm mid 18th century
T
he Islamic palace of Alhambra was decorated in the
14th century with a number
of large vases. The Nationalmuseum’s
Alhambra Vase has a form recalling
the amphora of antiquity, and its
decoration consists of arabesques,
Arabic characters, bands and
medallions. It came to Sweden with
the war booty from Prague in 1648,
becoming part of Queen Christina’s
art collection. When the vase was
placed in Lovisa Ulrika’s library at
Drottningholm, it was provided with
mounts designed by Carl Hårleman,
partly to conceal old damage.
AB
Height 155 cm
Transferred from Drottningholm 1866
Nationalmuseum, NMK 47
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Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553)
Lucretia, 1528
A
ccording to tradition,
Lucretia was a beautiful
noblewoman of ancient
Rome. She was the virtuous wife
of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus,
whose uncle was the last king
of the city. Lucretia took her own
life after being raped by one of the
king’s sons. The incident is said to
have sparked a revolt in which the
royal family was overthrown, marking the start of the Roman Republic.
It was a subject the German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder
and his contemporaries frequently
returned to. This painting probably
belonged to King Gustav Vasa’s
collection of art.
LH
Oil on wood, 57r38 cm
Presented by Axel Bielke 1869
Nationalmuseum, NM 1080
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Dosso Dossi (1486–1541/42)
Portrait of a Man Wearing a Black
Beret, c. 1530
T
his type of portrait can be
linked to the aristocratic
ideal that emerged early
in the 16th century in Renaissance
Italy. It was an ideal described in
Baldassare Castiglione’s famous
book The Courtier (1528) and captured in images by Italian painters
such as Raphael, Titian or, as here,
Dosso Dossi. In this painting the
subject, in a characteristic beard,
elegant costume and hat, leans at
an open window overlooking a landscape. The work was part of the art
collection of the abdicated Queen
Christina in Rome.
LH
Oil on canvas, 85.5r71 cm
Presented by Hjalmar Linder 1919
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Wine cooler, interior motif
depicting the Battle of Thapsus,
maiolica (tin-glazed earthenware)
Attributed to the workshop of Orazio
Fontana, painting probably after a design
by Taddeo Zuccaro (1529–1566), Urbino
c. 1570
T
he Nationalmuseum’s large
collection of Urbino maiolica
was among the spoils of war
taken from the treasury of Rudolf II
in Prague in 1648. The objects
belonged to Queen Christina, who
took some fifty pieces with her when
she moved to Rome in 1654. Despite
this, around a hundred maiolica
objects from Urbino remain in the
Museum’s collections. The motif in
the bottom of this wine cooler is a
scene from the Roman civil war, the
Battle of Thapsus in North Africa,
in which Julius Caesar triumphed
in 46 bc.
AB
Height 37 cm, diam. 58 cm
Transferred from the Royal Museum 1866
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Giuseppe Arcimboldo (c. 1527–1593)
The Lawyer, possibly Ulrich Zasius,
(1461–1536), humanist and jurist,
1566
A
rcimboldo’s paintings show
human figures made up
of different objects, with
the aim of representing a particular
subject. Here, a pile of books and
documents has been draped in a
fur-trimmed gown. The face consists
of birds and fishes. The portrait
is assumed to be of an official or
scholar, possibly the lawyer Ulrich
Zasius. Arcimboldo’s allegorical
paintings were held in great esteem
by Maximilian II and Rudolf II. This
one belonged to the imperial collections in Prague and was brought to
Sweden after the Thirty Years War.
ELK
Oil on canvas, 64r51 cm
Nationalmuseum, Swedish National Portrait Gallery,
NMGrh 1227
26 I 27
Joos de Momper (1564–1635)
Mountain Landscape, 1620s
T
his painting depicts a
dramatic, north European
mountain landscape. The
sharp outlines of the wooded slopes
in the foreground, with a ravine
and a waterfall, stand out against
the backdrop of a valley and distant
blue mountains – a fantasy landscape very much representative of
the Flemish tradition from the 16th
century on. The light entering the
scene touches the highest treetops
and illuminates broad swathes of
the landscape stretching out below.
Groups of travellers and pilgrims
make their way along a road edged
by tall cliffs and steep precipices.
CF
Oil on wood, 76.8r122.5 cm
Bequeathed by Martin von Wahrendorff 1863
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Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (1573–1621)
Still Life with a Vase of Flowers, 1620
T
he floral still life emerged
around 1600, reflecting the
great interest of the period
in botany. One of the pioneers
was Bosschaert. His compositions,
painted for royal cabinets of
curiosities, represented idealised
bouquets, bringing together plants
from different seasons. Here, in
a terracotta vase, we see illusionistically depicted blooms – both
cultivated rarities and meadow
flowers. The insects, like the flowers,
symbolise the transitoriness of life.
Individual plants recur in several
paintings, showing that the artist
worked partly from sketches or prints.
CF
Transferred from the Royal Museum 1866 (Gustav III 1792)
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Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1603–1683/84)
A Vanitas Still Life with a Skull,
a Book and Roses, c. 1630
T
his painting is an allegory
of the transience of life. It
shows a number of objects
symbolising the fleetingness of
time and the vanity of all human
ambition. As moral and religious
metaphors, they exhort the viewer
to observe moderation in worldly
affairs and sensual pleasures. In
depicting these objects, the artist is
also showing off his skill at imitating
reality – his painted roses admittedly
spread no seductive fragrance, but
nor will they ever wilt and die.
CF
Purchased 1989
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Judith Leyster (1609–1660)
Boy Playing the Flute, 1630s
T
here were many women
artists in the 17th century,
especially in northern
Europe. Most of them were court
painters, but in Holland they were
able, like Judith Leyster, to join
the Guild of St Luke and become
masters in their own right. Leyster
had her own studio with students
in Haarlem in the 1630s, and mainly
painted genre pictures of people
making music. Boy Playing the Flute
was for a long time attributed to
Frans Hals. Many female artists
were made invisible in this way, their
names erased by art historians to
whom the male artist was the norm.
MG
Presented by Oscar II, 1871
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Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
(1606–1669)
The Kitchen Maid, 1651
E
ver since it came to Sweden
in the late 17th century,
The Kitchen Maid, with its
lively portrayal of the girl in the
window, has been regarded as a
masterpiece by Rembrandt. Around
1650 he produced a series of similar
genre paintings of half-length
female figures. It is assumed that
in this case the artist was depicting
someone he knew well, given the
highly personal characterisation
of the figure. The painting is executed with broad brushstrokes and
sharp contrasts of light and shadow.
The warm red of the jacket contrasts harmoniously with the white
blouse and the dark background.
CF
36 I 37
(1606–1669). Circle of
St Anastasius, probably painted
in the period 1631–1650
I
n a vaulted room, an old man
sits at a table reading. The
subject has been interpreted
as St Anastasius – one of the church
fathers – in his study. From the
right, daylight pours in through the
window, with a fainter light coming
through the doorway to the left.
The chiaroscuro of the room and
the interplay of different light
sources are highly reminiscent of
Rembrandt’s art. This painting was
once regarded as one of his masterpieces, but is now considered the
work of another artist.
MA
Queen Lovisa Ulrika’s Collection 1760.
Transferred to the Nationalmuseum 1866
38 I 39
Constantin Verhout (active 1638–1667)
The Sleeping Student, 1663
A
student has fallen asleep
in a chair. On the table are
gloves, writing materials
and books. The focus is on the pile
of books, with its intricate play
of light and shadow that creates a
tension in the picture. The painting
has been interpreted as conveying
a moral message – about the importance of making proper use of one’s
time. But when it was brought to
attention in the major Rembrandt
exhibition in 1992, interest in the
work was also prompted by associations with a modern aesthetic –
the arrangement of piled-up books
recalled a stylised idiom akin to
modernism.
MA
40 I 41
Jean Antoine Watteau (1684–1721)
The Love Lesson, c. 1717
S
eated before the man with
a guitar is an elegant party in
a leafy parkland. Silk dresses
in blue, green and yellow contrast
with the dark vegetation. Here and
there are the heads of roses – the
flower of love – picked by the woman
by the rose bush. Despite his short
life, Watteau was to be one of the
most influential French artists
of the 18th century. The Love Lesson
is typical of the genre he created
– the fête galante – with its mixture
of melancholy moods and amorous
undertones.
MA
Purchased 1953, with contributions from the Friends
of the Nationalmuseum and a national subscription
42 I 43
Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743)
The Swing, c. 1728
L
ancret’s speciality was playful
scenes showing well-dressed
companies from the social
elite of the day enjoying themselves.
It was a type of subject launched
by Watteau in the early 18th century,
known as the fête galante – the
courtship party. Lancret had been
a pupil of Watteau and continued
the tradition after his master’s death.
His paintings are always elegant,
but often without the dreamlike,
melancholy atmosphere that
pervades Watteau’s pictorial world.
This painting was bought by Carl
Gustaf Tessin in Paris in 1729.
MA
44 I 45
Tureen with cover from Count von
Brühl’s Swan Service, porcelain
Meissen c. 1737–1741, designed by Johann
Joachim Kändler (1706–1775)
T
his tureen was part of a
service made up of some
2,200 pieces, commissioned
by the director of the Meissen porcelain factory, Heinrich von Brühl,
and designed by the factory’s master
modeller Johann Joachim Kändler.
The service is decorated with the
arms of the commissioner, aquatic
and marine motifs, and mythological
figures linked to water: Neptune,
Amphitrite, Tritons and mermaids.
Count von Brühl’s Swan Service
is still regarded as one of the most
extravagant masterpieces ever
created in porcelain.
AB
Height 49 cm
Acquired by exchange
Nationalmuseum, NMK 106/1962
46 I 47
François Boucher (1703–1770)
The Triumph of Venus, 1740
T
he goddess of love has just
been born out of the foam of
the sea and sits triumphant
in a seashell, surrounded by Tritons,
naiads and amorini. Waves, deities,
fish and fabrics create a swirling
movement in the picture. With its
light palette, energetic composition
and erotic content, this painting
combines all the features generally
associated with the Rococo visual
world. Boucher’s famous painting
was first shown at the Paris Salon
of 1740 and was brought to Sweden
by Carl Gustaf Tessin the following
year.
MA
48 I 49
The Grill Family Christening Basin,
ewer with basin, silver, cast, handraised and chased
Hallmarks of Johan Collin, master in
Stockholm 1737–1759, date mark for 1745.
Designed and probably made by Christian
Precht (1706–1779)
T
he ‘Grill Family Christening
Basin’ is perhaps the most
outstanding example of
Swedish Rococo silver to survive to
the present day. Its maker, Christian
Precht, trained on the continent,
but never belonged to the guild and
was therefore not entitled to hallmark his products. However, drawings and archival records allow us
to identify his very high-quality work.
Precht supplied silver to the court,
but these objects have not survived,
having been melted down when they
became unfashionable.
AB
Presented by the Friends of the Nationalmuseum
Nationalmuseum, NMK 110A + 110B/2006
50 I 51
Claude Michel, known as Clodion
(1738–1814)
Satyr and Nymph, 1780s
T
wo attendants of the wine
god Bacchus – a satyr and
a bacchante – are kissing,
closely intertwined on a tree stump.
The satyr has a goat’s legs and ears,
and on the ground are his attributes
– the thyrsus, grapes, tambourine
and flute. Everything is carved with
detailed precision. The sculptor
Clodion specialised in small terracotta sculptures of this kind, often
on erotic subjects and always executed with great technical finesse.
His sculptures are very representative of the Rococo style and were
much esteemed among collectors
as early as the 18th century. The
sculpture was aquired for the
Nationalmuseum on 2011.
LH
Terracotta, height 56.4 cm
Purchased 2011, Sophia Giesecke Fund
Nationalmuseum, NMSk 2346
52 I 53
Chair, hand-carved, gilt,
upholstered seat and back
Made for the Royal Palace in
Stockholm, c. 1754. Design attributed
to Carl Hårleman (1700–1753)
W
hen the royal family
moved into Stockholm’s
Royal Palace in 1754,
large quantities of furniture were
commissioned. In the strict hierarchy
that prevailed at court, the design of
seat furniture was not something
that was left to chance. The king and
queen, Adolf Frederick and Lovisa
Ulrika, were provided with gilt armchairs, with high-quality carving.
Their children sat on gilded chairs
without arms, with similar carving
to those of their royal parents. Other
guests were given simpler, yellowpainted chairs.
AB
Height 101 cm
Purchased 2013, Barbro Osher Fund
54 I 55
Anne Vallayer-Coster (1744–1818)
Still Life with Brioche, Fruit and
Vegetables, 1775
A
glass bowl, a brioche, a basket
of peaches and a bunch of
horseradishes have been
arranged against a dark background
on a cracked marble slab. The refined
simplicity of the picture is typical
of Anne Vallayer-Coster – one of
the most successful women artists
of 18th-century France. The still-life
painting of Chardin, which dominated the first half of the century,
was an important starting point for
her art. But Vallayer-Coster developed
a style of her own, with freer brushwork and a more nuanced palette.
MA
Purchased 1995, Hedda and N. D. Qvist Fund
56 I 57
Luis Melendez (1716–1780)
Basket of Wild Strawberries in
a Landscape, c. 1770
L
uis Melendez abandoned the
dark, austere interiors of the
older Spanish still-life tradition for the open air. Here, a basket
of wild strawberries has been placed
next to some strawberry plants on
a hillside, some of them silhouetted
against the blue sky and lively clouds.
The surrounding countryside and
Melendez’s always accurate representation of berries and plants tell
us that this picture was painted
during the century of Linnaeus. In
Madrid, too, a new feeling for nature
was emerging in the 18th century.
MA
Oil on canvas, 36.5r59.5 cm
58 I 59
Alexander Roslin (1718–1793)
The Artist with his Wife
Marie Suzanne Giroust Portraying
Henrik Wilhelm Peill, 1767
T
he successful Swedish
portrait painter Alexander
Roslin was active in Paris
and came to hold a unique position
on the international art scene of the
18th century. It was in the French
capital that he met his future wife,
the portraitist Marie Suzanne
Giroust, and it was there he made
the acquaintance of his compatriot
Henrik Wilhelm Peill. This painting
intricately unites the three – the artist has depicted himself alongside
his wife, who is working on a portrait
of Peill. The work was acquired by
the Nationalmuseum in 2013.
MA
Oil on canvas, 131r98.5 cm
Purchased 2013, the Friends of the Nationalmuseum
and the Sophia Giesecke, Axel Hirsch, and Denise
and Stefan Persson Funds
60 I 61
Urn with cover, faience
Signed ‘Rörstrand 25/6 1765’
I
n 1726 the Rörstrand porcelain
factory was built in Stockholm.
The aim was to make true
(hard-paste) porcelain, though
this would not be achieved until the
19th century. In the 18th century,
the factory produced faience wares
instead, drawing its models chiefly
from Holland, Germany and France.
In time, Rörstrand found a style of
its own, as faience as a material was
well suited to the rather restrained
forms of Swedish Rococo. The urn
shown here is a good example of
this idiom.
AB
Height 35 cm, width 23 cm
Presented by the Friends of the Nationalmuseum
62 I 63
Punchbowl with cover, faience
Signed Marieberg, Ehrenreich’s period
(1760–1766)
T
he Marieberg porcelain
factory was established in
Stockholm in 1760. Like
its competitor Rörstrand, it set out
to produce true porcelain, an aim it
in fact achieved. The porcelain it
manufactured, however, was both
expensive and of poor quality, and
could therefore never compete with
imports from the East Indies and
other parts of Europe. Marieberg
faience, by contrast, was of a very
high quality, able to compare, both
technically and artistically, with
the best produced on the continent.
AB
Height 28 cm, length 31 cm
Purchased 1885
64 I 65
Punchbowl, porcelain. Sèvres 1777,
decorated by Denis Levé
Presented to Gustav III by Louis XVI, 1784
I
n many countries of Europe
in the 18th century, porcelain
production became a matter
of royal prestige. In Paris, Berlin,
St Petersburg, Copenhagen
and other cities, factories were
run under royal auspices. Many
of the pieces produced were sent as
diplomatic gifts to foreign courts
or rulers. This richly gilded punchbowl with chinoiserie decoration
was presented by the French king
Louis XVI to Gustav III during the
latter’s visit to Paris in 1784 on his
way home from a tour of Italy.
AB
Height 15 cm, diam. 35.5 cm
Collection of Charles XV
Nationalmuseum, NMK CXV 545
66 I 67
Johan Tobias Sergel (1740–1814)
The Faun, 1774
A
faun was a creature of
ancient mythology, a shepherd figure that was part
human, part goat. In ecstatic intoxication, the fauns followed the wine
god Bacchus. In Sergel’s sculpture
there is nothing at first glance to
suggest that this is such a creature.
The human body is realistically
portrayed, but at the base of the
spine a small goat’s tail can be seen.
The Faun was the work that brought
Sergel his breakthrough, and was
carved when he was in Rome. It was
made in two copies, of which this
one became part of Gustav III’s
collection.
LH
Marble, 83.5 cm
Nationalmuseum, NMSk 357
68 I 69
Elias Martin (1739–1818)
Landscape with Spruce, c. 1780
A
large spruce leans dramatically into the picture, pointing up to the rocky peaks
in the background. In the sky, the
sun breaks through the veils of mist
and dark clouds. With this dramatic
light, the artist is seeking to capture
the power of the wild, rocky landscape. After twelve years in England,
Elias Martin returned to Sweden in
1780. This painting dates from that
time and reflects the influence of
contemporary British landscape art,
with its strong emerging interest in
untamed nature.
MA
Presented by the Friends of the Nationalmuseum,
with a contribution from Bengt Bernström, 1950
70 I 71
Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun
(1755–1842)
Portrait of a Young Lady as Flora, 1811
I
t became common in the 18th
century for women to have their
portraits painted in a variety
of roles – as a shepherdess or a
mythological figure. This woman
appears as Flora, the goddess of
vegetation and fertility. She wears
a costume, inspired by antiquity,
that leaves one breast bare. In earlier
times, bare breasts could symbolise
maternity, but here there is more of
an erotic overtone. The portrait was
painted by Élisabeth Louise VigéeLebrun, one of France’s leading
portraitists before, during and after
the French Revolution.
MA
Presented by the heirs of Ernst Davidsson 1919
72 I 73
Memorial cup with cover, silver,
hand-raised and chased
Made by Pehr Zethelius, Stockholm, 1783
I
n connection with funerals in
the 18th century, the priest and
pall-bearers were often presented
with a gift, such as a spoon. In royal
contexts, it became a tradition for
the bishop conducting the service to
be given a covered cup. This memorial cup in silver was commissioned
by Gustav III for the funeral of his
mother, Queen Lovisa Ulrika, and
was unknown to scholars until it was
acquired by the Nationalmuseum in
2012. The Museum previously had
a cup from the funeral of Frederick I
in its collections.
AB
Height 36 cm, diam. 18.4 cm
Barbro and Henry Montgomery Fund
74 I 75
Urn Maelstrom V, 3D-printed nylon,
mineral coating
Designed and produced in 2011 by
Michael Eden (b. 1955)
M
odern technology gives
designers completely
new tools for their
creativity. Using three-dimensional
printing, it is possible to achieve
shapes that cannot be fashioned
by hand. Since 2008, ceramic artist
Michael Eden has been designing
objects for 3D printing. His design
and the technology he uses are
entirely contemporary, but the
classical heritage is also clear, with
references to ancient urns and
18th-century English ceramics
from Wedgwood.
AB
Bengt Julin Fund
76 I 77
Urn with cover, Blyberg porphyry,
ormolu and patinated bronze
Älvdalen Porphyry Works and France
(bronze mounts), c. 1800
P
orphyry is a hard, not easily
worked igneous rock, much
sought after ever since
antiquity. In Sweden, objects began
to be manufactured from it in
the 1780s. The Älvdalen Porphyry
Works, founded in 1788, had a wideranging output, including urns,
table tops, butter dishes and clock
cases. The porphyry was often fitted
with ormolu (gilt bronze) mounts,
both Swedish-made and foreign.
In the reign of Charles XIV (Karl
Johan), when the works was owned
by the king, many porphyry objects
were presented as diplomatic gifts.
AB
Height 63 cm
Presented by Hilda Seippel
78 I 79
Camille Corot (1796–1875)
The Red Rocks at Cività Castellana,
c. 1827
I
n the 1820s Corot visited Italy
to study the classical landscape
tradition. But he did not confine his attention to the old masters.
In the Sabine Hills north of Rome,
he made numerous studies of the
actual countryside. It was here that
he produced his paintings of red
sandstone cliffs, the Rocce Rosse,
near the village of Cività Castellana.
Corot’s Italian sketches are early
examples of the plein-air painting
that would have a decisive influence
on French 19th-century landscape art.
MA
Purchased 1917
80 I 81
Christen Købke (1810–1848)
Mrs Th. Petersen, née Roepstorff, 1833
C
hristen Købke was one of
the leading artists of what
is known as Denmark’s
Golden Age, equally successful as a
portraitist and a landscape painter.
This rendering of Mrs Petersen is
a good illustration of his unique
ability to create a strong presence
in the gaze of his subject. Another
characteristic of Købke, and of
Danish Golden Age painters generally, was the very precise manner
in which they painted. One such
detail, which reinforces the impression of liveliness in this portrait, is
the few stray hairs, simply painted,
protruding from the carefully
arranged coiffure.
CJO
Purchased 1921
82 I 83
Johan Gustaf Sandberg (1782–1854)
King Gustav Vasa Addressing Men
from Dalarna in Mora, 1836
O
utside the church in Mora,
Gustav Vasa urges the
peasantry to rebel against
the Danes. The year is 1520, and
a new Sweden is about to emerge.
When Sandberg painted the scene
three hundred years later, Gustav
Vasa was regarded as a national
hero. History painting gained a very
prestigious place in the visual art
of the 19th century. Sandberg also
painted the Mora scene as a large
fresco in the Vasa Chapel of Uppsala
Cathedral. The image appears in the
book 1001 Paintings You Must See
before You Die (2011).
MA
Presented by Karl Arfvedsson 1926
84 I 85
Joseph Mallard William Turner
(1775–1851)
Seascape, 1840s
O
n an agitated sea, we can
make out people, boats
and sails. The shifting
colours and lights bring out the
haze, the winter sun through the
clouds and the powerful swell
of the waves. This is one of a series
of atmospheric coastal scenes
Turner painted in the 1840s. Despite
his position as one of the leading
figures of British art, this work
has rarely been shown. But it is an
extraordinary example of Turner’s
technique, which already in his lifetime was aptly described as ‘airy
visions painted with tinted steam’.
MA
Oil on paper, 24.5r32 cm
Presented by Mr and Mrs Pekka Ulander through
the Friends of the Nationalmuseum, 1960
86 I 87
Eugène Delacroix (1791–1824)
The Lion Hunt, 1855 or 1856
H
unting scenes and fighting
animals are recurring
themes in Delacroix’s
work. This painting is part of a lion
hunt series he produced in the
1850s, reflecting the contemporary
fascination with the countries of
North Africa. On a visit to Morocco
in the 1830s, Delacroix had studied
and made sketches of the landscape,
horses and hunters on horseback
– themes that were later woven into
his paintings of lion hunts. These
dramatic scenes, with their energetic
compositions and warm hues, convey
the new aesthetic ideals of the time.
MA
Presented by Grace and Philip Sandblom 1970
88 I 89
Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899)
Wild Cat, 1850
R
osa Bonheur was one of
the most celebrated animal
painters of her time. This
wild cat is a good example of her
realistic portrayals of animals.
Bonheur was genuinely interested
in the creatures she depicted.
As well as a large number of dogs,
cage birds and cats, she kept an
otter, mouflons and lions. Bonheur’s
choice of subjects required her to
frequent places where long skirts
were impractical. In 1857, the police
granted her permission to wear
trousers in public.
MA
Presented by Arvid Kellgren through
90 I 91
Micromosaic, glass, depicting
St Peter’s Square, Rome
Papal workshops, Rome, c. 1870
M
icromosaic is made from
thin rods of differently
coloured glass, combined to form an image. The technique became a speciality of Roman
craftsmen in the later 18th century
and the whole of the 19th. Smaller
objects were mounted as jewellery,
but larger pieces such as table tops
and reproductions of paintings were
also made. The Vatican City had
its own workshops, and the popes
often used micromosaics as diplomatic gifts.
AB
40r62 cm
Given by Pius IX to the Dowager Queen Josefina 1875,
presented by her estate to the Nationalmuseum 1877
92 I 93
Amalia Lindegren (1814–1891)
Breakfast, 1866
T
his little girl with her bowl
of gruel has also set out
breakfast for her doll.
The silver spoon in her hand tells
us this is a well-to-do home. The
picture expresses the contemporary
middle-class ideal of childhood –
one of innocence and sentimentality. Amalia Lindegren was a much
appreciated artist in her lifetime,
and several of her genre pictures
were acquired for the new Nationalmuseum. This one was bought in
1866, the year the Museum opened.
The many reproductions of her
paintings testify to the great popularity she enjoyed in her day.
MA
Purchased 1866
94 I 95
Amanda Sidvall (1844–1892)
Self-Portrait, 1870–1871
A
manda Sidvall was one
of the first 18 students in
the ‘Women’s Department’
when the Royal Swedish Academy
of Fine Arts formally opened its
doors to women in 1864. In 1874
she went to Paris to continue
her studies at the Académie Julian.
Sidvall received good reviews in
her lifetime and became an established artist. At the Paris Salon of
1877, two of her paintings were sold
to the French state. This self-portrait
in a hat with a blue silk bow was
painted while she was still a student
at the Stockholm Academy.
AD
Presented by Sven Sidvall through
96 I 97
Urn with cover, steel, gilded,
etched and blued
Signed ‘C. Hj. Norrström 1893’
(Carl Hjalmar Norrström, 1853–1924)
H
jalmar Norrström was
born in Eskilstuna, a town
with a long tradition of
steelmaking. He trained at the Royal
Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm
and in Paris. His best-known work
consists of objects made from etched
and polished steel, a material
previously used mostly for weapons.
This urn is designed in a classical
idiom, with decoration representing
the Greek goddess Demeter and her
Roman counterpart Ceres, patroness
of agriculture and the harvest.
AB
Purchased 1894
98 I 99
Hugo Salmson (1843–1894)
Portrait of a Young Girl, c. 1880
H
ugo Salmson is an almost
forgotten artist today,
but in the 19th century
he was highly successful, known
among other things for his considerable technical ability. This girl in
a chair is painted with a skill that
bears comparison with the more
celebrated names of 19th-century
art. Salmson was sometimes criticised for a stiffness in his images,
but that is scarcely the case here.
The technical precision of the painting, combined with the girl’s defiant
look, overshadows the admittedly
rather arranged character of the
portrait.
CJO
100 I 101
Johan Krouthén (1858–1932)
View of a Garden, Linköping,
1887–1888
N
owadays, Johan Krouthén
is often associated with
the many paintings of
apple trees in blossom and red
wooden houses that he produced
in the later part of his career. This
is an early work, showing a young
family amongst the fresh greenery
of a garden in Linköping. Particularly striking is the meticulous
attention to detail, combined
with the skilfully captured overall
atmospheric effect that the plein-air
painting of the 1880s sought to
achieve. The picture was acquired
for the Nationalmuseum in 2011.
CJO
102 I 103
Anshelm Schultzberg (1862–1945)
Demolishing the Old Orphanage,
Stockholm, 1886
I
n his poem ‘The Esplanade
System’, from 1883, August
Strindberg describes how a
modern Stockholm was emerging
at that time, with old houses being
torn down ‘for light and air’. Schultzberg’s painting is a commentary on
the same process. With razor-sharp
realism he records the demolition
of the old orphanage, meticulously
capturing the early spring light,
the many nuances of the gravel and
rocks, and the clouds of dust. The
subject of the painting is the gap
left by the building, or rather, the
light and air in this empty space.
MA
Purchased 1938
104 I 105
Bruno Liljefors (1860–1939)
Cat in a Summer Meadow, 1887
T
he Nationalmuseum’s
acquisition of Cat in a
Summer Meadow means
that one of Bruno Liljefors’s most
ambitious works can now be recreated and experienced as the artist
intended. The painting has been
united here with Nestlings of RedBacked Shrike, which was already in
the Museum’s collection. Originally
the two belonged together, in a common frame. They have now been
reunited, moreover, with the other
four paintings that also formed
part of the original whole – Four
Bird Studies in a Single Frame (see
overleaf) In this recreated context,
Nestlings appears in a new light –
seeing it alongside the cat motif,
we realise that Liljefors composed
the paintings together, as they are
so well balanced in terms of both
form and colour.
CJO
106 I 107
Four Bird Studies, 1887
Cat in a Summer Meadow and
Nestlings of Red-Backed Shrike, 1887
Oil on canvas and wood, 99r166 cm (frame)
Purchased 1992, Axel Hirsch Fund
108 I 109
Purchased 1992, Axel Hirsch Fund
Räv (Fox), chamotte stoneware
with lead glaze
Designed and made in 2007
by Frida Fjellman (b. 1971)
F
rida Fjellman takes a great
interest in the anatomy of
the animals she depicts,
researching it thoroughly before
starting work on her sculptures.
Her fox is a carefully crafted representation, faithful to nature. She
sees the animal she has portrayed
as an observer, sitting watching and
monitoring its surroundings, or as
Fjellman herself puts it: ‘It’s a fox,
pure and simple, made with honest
intent and without irony.’
AB
Height 65.5 cm, width 32 cm, depth 60 cm
Bengt Julin Fund
110 I 111
110
Älgradio (Elk or Moose Radio),
glazed ceramic, built-in radio
Designed and made by Per B. Sundberg
(b. 1964)
T
he late 1990s saw growing
criticism of the then prevailing, internationally
acclaimed stylistic ideal of pure,
unadorned neo-modernism. The
debate about ‘good taste’ and power
gathered momentum. A new generation of designers broke with the
notion of function and created
more conceptual objects, where
the emphasis was on the underlying
idea. Per B. Sundberg’s ‘Elk Radio’
is as far removed from functionalism
as it is possible to get, and expresses
the kind of humour that informs a
good deal of concept-driven design.
AB
Height 36 cm, width 35 cm, depth 29 cm
Bengt Julin Fund
112 I 113
Olof Arborelius (1842–1915)
Lake View at Engelsberg,
Västmanland, 1893
T
he trees and the clouds are
reflected in the mirror-like
surface of the water. This
view of a lake is captured in the clear
light of a typical, still Swedish summer’s day. Painted in 1893, it was
purchased for the Nationalmuseum
the following year. Since then this
has been one of the Museum’s bestloved paintings, its designation by
the Swedish Tourist Association in
1935 as the quintessential ‘Picture
of Sweden’ helping to make it famous.
Arborelius’s painting is also the
work in the Museum’s collection
most often copied by visiting artists
and art students.
MA
Purchased 1894
114 I 115
Eva Bonnier (1857–1909)
Mrs Hanna Marcus, 1886
H
anna Marcus was a relative
of some friends of Eva
Bonnier’s. This portrait
was painted on Dalarö, south of
Stockholm, where many of the artist’s acquaintances spent the summer. It was probably not a commissioned work, but seems to have been
done on Bonnier’s own initiative
– as its modest size and intimate
character suggest. This is one of the
paintings Richard Bergh, artist and
director of the Nationalmuseum,
acquired for the Museum in 1915 to
strengthen its collection of important works from the late 19th century.
CJO
Oil on cardboard, 24r19 cm
Presented by Betty Piehl through Richard Bergh, 1915
116 I 117
Bertha Wegmann (1847–1926)
Woman in Black
T
he Danish artist Bertha
Wegmann is known above
all for her portraits. Active
in Denmark and on the continent,
she was exposed to a variety of
influences. This woman in profile,
dressed in black in front of a patterned curtain, recalls one of the
most famous pictures of the period:
Whistler’s Mother, painted by James
Abbott McNeill Whistler in 1871,
exhibited in London and Paris, and
popularised through prints. This
portrait is a new acquisition, bought
for the Nationalmuseum in 2012.
MA
Purchased 2012, Sara and Johan Emil Graumann Fund
118 I 119
Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1919)
Interior, 1898
A
solitary woman in a sparsely
furnished room is a recurring theme in Hammershøi’s
pictures. The light comes from the
side, and the figure often has her
back to the viewer. Clear models
for these interiors can be found in
17th-century Holland or early 19thcentury Denmark. But Hammershøi’s
silent, empty rooms also have an
intense, suggestive mood all their
own. Most of his interior scenes
were painted in his home in Copenhagen, but this one was executed
in London. The model is the artist’s
wife Ida.
MA
Presented by Karin Manwaring Robertson in memory
of her late mother, Florence Löwenadler, 1946
120 I 121
Laurits Andersen Ring (1854–1933)
At Breakfast, 1898
S
eated at the breakfast table
reading the morning paper is
the artist’s wife, Sigrid Kähler.
Light streams in through the open
door, and outside we can make out
the lush green of summer. The year
is 1898 and the Danish artist couple
have been married for two years.
Above the woman’s head, we see a
sprig of myrtle – an ancient symbol
of love. The painting has been compared with Carl Larsson’s contemporary Sundborn pictures, but Ring’s
summer idyll is closer to reality. And
the newspaper – a copy of Politiken
– serves as a reminder of the world
outside.
MA
Presented by Karin Manwaring Robertson, England,
in memory of her late mother, Florence Löwenadler, 1946
122 I 123
Carl Larsson (1853–1919)
Getting Ready for a Game, 1901
T
his painting shows the
artist’s wife Karin Larsson
preparing for an evening of
vira – a popular Swedish card game
in the 19th century – with guests in
the couple’s home at Sundborn in
Dalarna. At the same time, it is a
detailed exposition of their ideas on
domestic interior design. The subdued lighting is itself a kind of ideal,
but is carefully adjusted in the picture to allow every object to be made
out. Children were as natural a part
of Carl Larsson’s pictures as adults,
and here Karin is accompanied by
two of their daughters.
CJO
Presented 1916
124 I 125
Fanny Brate (1861–1940)
A Day of Celebration, 1902
P
reparations are under way
for a name-day party in the
drawing room on the artist’s
family estate of Brategården in
Bråfors in the district of Bergslagen.
The room features light furnishings
and textiles – 18th-century furniture
is combined with older painted
wall hangings and modern window
dressing. The table is decorated
with meadow flowers and ivy. Brate
has above all attracted attention for
her domestic interiors from around
1900. A Day of Celebration is her bestknown work, reproduced on everything from postcards to coffee tins.
LH
Purchased 1903
126 I 127
Vase with socle, lead-glazed
earthenware
Rörstrand, made in 1896, designed by Alf
Wallander (1862–1914)
ugendstil achieved its major
breakthrough in Sweden with
the Stockholm Exhibition of
1897. Rörstrand had already recruited
the artist Alf Wallander in 1895 to
renew and modernise its production.
Wallander would be one of the leading figures in spreading the new style,
and also designed textiles, glass and
metal objects in Jugendstil for other
clients. This vase was shown at both
the Stockholm Exhibition in 1897
and the Paris Universal Exposition
of 1900.
AB
Height 141.5 cm, width 65 cm
Purchased 1982
128 I 129
Otto Hesselbom (1848–1913)
Summer Night, c. 1900
H
esselbom liked to paint
broad, majestic views of
mountain and forest landscapes. The silence, stillness and
absence of people convey an almost
religious feeling for nature. At
the same time, there is a patriotic
passion to his pictures. Although
he often drew his subjects from
Dalsland, he wanted to make this
particular province a symbol of
Sweden as a whole. His most monumental painting was in fact titled
Our Country. Hesselbom’s visual
world is representative of the atmospherically charged painting of
fin de siècle Sweden.
MA
Bequeathed by Ferdinand and Anna Boberg 1946
130 I 131
Anna Boberg (1864–1935)
Northern Lights
I
n the summer of 1901, Anna
Boberg paid her first visit to the
Lofoten Islands in north-west
Norway, where the mountain scenery, northern lights and midnight
sun made a deep impression on
her. She returned some thirty times,
summer and winter, to paint in
different lights. In numerous paintings and sketches, Boberg portrayed
fishing villages, mountain massifs
and atmospheric phenomena – like
the aurora borealis depicted here.
Her paintings from northern Norway
met with adverse criticism in Sweden,
but attracted positive attention
abroad.
LH
Bequeathed by Ferdinand and Anna Boberg 1946
132 I 133
Carl Wilhelmson (1866–1928)
Churchgoers in a Boat, 1909
C
arl Wilhelmson found most
of his subjects in his native
Bohuslän. His brightly
lit scenes portray the province’s
austere, rocky landscape and hardworking fishing communities with
gravity and dignity. This painting
shows rowing boats putting out
from outside the church in Fiskebäckskil to take churchgoers back
home after the Sunday service.
The special painting technique
and bright, luminous palette reflect
influences from Wilhelmson’s
time in France and artists such as
Paul Gauguin.
AD
Purchased 1914
134 I 135
Anders Zorn (1860–1920)
Omnibus, 1895 or 1892
A
nders Zorn’s Omnibus was
painted during a stay in
Paris in the 1890s. Zorn
travelled regularly by omnibus from
his home in Montmartre, merely
to study the passengers. As the bus
rolled through the city, the light
inside constantly changed. Electric
street lights had recently been
installed in Paris – and the mixture
of artificial and natural light created
new and unexpected effects, which
Zorn tried to capture on canvas.
Contemporary critics described
Omnibus as ‘ultra-modern’.
Purchased 1985, with a contribution from
the Beijer Foundation
136 I 137
Anders Zorn (1860–1920)
Midsummer Dance, 1897
I
n his autobiographical notes,
Zorn writes about how the idea
for this painting was born: ‘This
work was painted in June and part
of July [1897] after sunset and I am
pleased to have done it. I had just
given Morkarlby a new maypole.
It was painted red every Midsummer
… Once it was up, a polska was played
and people danced hand-in-hand
around the maypole and the yards,
in an endless snake of youngsters.
Then there was dancing in one of
the yards until sunrise. This is what
my painting portrays.’
Presented by the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, with
a contribution from Pontus and Göthilda Fürstenberg, 1903
138 I 139
Carl Fredrik Hill (1849–1911)
The Tree and the River III
(The Seine at Bois-le-Roi), 1877
L
ike Ernst Josephson, Carl
Fredrik Hill travelled to
France with a burning ambition to make his mark as an artist.
His encounter with the French
countryside in the 1870s resulted
in an intense and patient endeavour
to capture the specific character of
the landscape. He often reworked
the same subject in several different
versions. A number of variants
exist of The Tree and the River, from
1877, this being the third. Here
the artist has sought to combine
strong daylight with the slightly
hazy atmosphere of the landscape.
CJO
Presented by friends of art through Richard Bergh, 1915
140 I 141
Ernst Josephson (1851–1907)
Portrait of a Lady, 1890s
D
uring a stay in France in
1888, Josephson developed
a mental illness. He was
never to recover. He remained productive as an artist, but the character of his work changed. From the
time he fell ill, it was marked by
strange visions and an expressive
visual language. Because of the
visual affinity between the images
from his years of illness and more
modern directions in art, several
artists and writers of the 20th century regarded Josephson as a genius.
In particular, his pictorial world
accorded with the strong interest in
the subconscious then emerging.
CJO
Presented by friends of art through Richard Bergh, 1915
142 I 143
August Strindberg (1849–1912)
Coastal Landscape II, 1903
A
ugust Strindberg only
painted landscapes – often
shores and seascapes from
the Stockholm archipelago. He liked
to depict stormy seas with foaming
waves, but here the water is calm. In
his autobiographical novel The Son
of a Servant, Strindberg writes that
‘one should give expression to one’s
inner feelings and not depict mere
sticks and stones’. He managed to
create something original as both a
writer and an artist, but recognition
of and real interest in his painting
would not come until the 1960s,
long after his death.
AD
Purchased 1929
144 I 145
Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
La Grenouillère, 1869
L
a Grenouillère – the Frog
Pond – was a popular destination for outings, close to
Paris. The artists Auguste Renoir
and Claude Monet spent time there
in September 1869, painting the
place several times, from different
perspectives. These pictures, with
their unmixed colours and sketchy
brushwork, are regarded as the first
fully fledged examples of Impressionist art. The present painting is
one of the Nationalmuseum’s internationally best-known artworks
– constantly in demand for exhibitions around the world.
MA
Presented by an anonymous donor through
146 I 147
Berthe Morisot (1841–1895)
In the Bois de Boulogne, before 1880
M
orisot took part in the
first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, and from
that point on was a core member of
the group. Contemporary reviewers
described her paintings as the very
essence of Impressionism. Many
critics regarded the group’s sketchy
style and emphasis on the fleeting
moment as decidedly feminine, and
therefore saw Morisot’s technique
as one that was well suited to a
woman. This painting was one of
twelve by her shown at the Impressionist exhibition of 1880.
MA
Presented by C. B. Nathorst through
148 I 149
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)
Landscape from Arles, 1888
I
n October 1888 Gauguin arrived
in Arles in the south of France,
where Vincent van Gogh was
already staying. Throughout the
autumn, the two artists lived and
worked together. Tension arose and
grew between them, leading to the
dramatic crisis in which van Gogh
cut off part of his ear after a violent
quarrel. In his landscape paintings
from Arles, Gauguin depicts the
shapes of nature as decorative areas
of colour, with no emphasis on the
depth of the landscape. The decorative whole takes precedence over the
illusion of reality.
PH
Purchased 1911
150 I 151
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906)
Still Life with Statuette, 1890s
O
n a table, next to some fruit,
is a statuette. But the painting gives few clues as to the
surrounding space – a fireplace is
vaguely suggested in the background,
and to the left a window. The painting is executed with light brushstrokes and thinly applied paint,
in a manner reminiscent of a watercolour. In several places the lightcoloured ground shines through.
The statuette on the table is a plaster cast of a 17th-century sculpture.
The cast belonged to the artist and
appears in several of his pictures.
MA
Presented by the Friends of the Nationalmuseum 1926
152 I 153
Celestial globe, engraved glass,
mounted in pewter
Signed Orrefors 1929–1930, designed by
Edward Hald (1883–1980)
S
wedish glass achieved major
successes at the Paris Exhibition of 1925, including medals
for the much-acclaimed engraved
glass of Simon Gate and Edward
Hald. This celestial globe was made
for the Stockholm Exhibition
in 1930, an event remembered by
posterity as marking the breakthrough of functionalism in Sweden.
There, engraved glass from Orrefors
celebrated its last triumph. In the
1930s, fashions moved towards
thicker, coloured glass with optical
effects.
AB
Presented by Alice Wallenberg
Nationalmuseum, NMK 142A/1930
154 I 155
Sculpture, Senapsmonumentet
(Monument to Mustard):
‘to free myself of the discomfort
of next Wednesday, “The day of the
armoured corps soldier”’, tin-glazed
ceramic, consisting of 81 parts
Produced at the factory of Marcello and
Vittoriano Bitossi, Montelupo, 1969,
designed by Ettore Sottsass (1917–2007)
I
n 1969 the Nationalmuseum
invited Ettore Sottsass to put
on an exhibition that came to
be known as Landscape for a New
Planet. It included his ‘Monument to
Mustard’, the name alluding to the
mustard gas used against defenceless soldiers in the First World War.
The exhibition presented an avantgarde design language that would
give rise to the postmodernist
Memphis group, co-founded by
Sottsass in 1981. A reconstruction
of the Nationalmuseum display
was staged in Maastricht in 2009.
AB
Height 280 cm
Purchased 1969
156 I 157
Sculpture, Sammetsdjungel
(Velvet Jungle), padded velvet
Signed Agneta Flock 1969, designed
by Agneta Flock (b. 1941), made by
Laor Sornkaew, Thailand
T
he 1960s saw a renewal of
textile art. Traditional pictorial weaving was challenged
by new techniques and a freer design.
In the late 1960s and the 1970s,
Agneta Flock created a number of
sculptures in padded velvet, with
jungle motifs. According to the
artist herself, they were inspired by
early memories of tropical vegetation and heat.
AB
Purchased 1969
158 I 159
Abakan, sisal, woven
Designed and made by Magdalena
Abakanowicz (b. 1930), made in 1969
I
n the 1960s the Polish artist
Magdalena Abakanowicz began
to make large, three-dimensional
textiles in sisal, calling them ‘Abakans’. Her material consisted partly
of discarded rope, which she unravelled, dyed and reused. Abakanowicz’s textiles are intended to hang
free in a room, rather than on a wall
in the traditional way. Some contemporary viewers were shocked
at her sculptures’ sexual allusions
and similarities to a vagina – a motif
that has always been surrounded
by taboo. The Nationalmuseum’s
Abakan has not been shown since
the 1970s.
AB
Height c. 380 cm, width 360 cm
Purchased 1971
160 I 161
Selfies sefileS
Selfies – Now and Then
m a rg a r eta gy n n ing
M
useums are an important meeting place for
discussions about the whole of our visual culture,
and not just about what is defined as fine art.
Our role is to try to explain complex historical contexts and to
deepen our visitors’ understanding of the age in which we live,
when many focus on the surface of things. As part of Highlights:
Known and Unknown Art Treasures from Nationalmuseum, the
Museum therefore wishes to contribute to the current debate
about identity and what are called ‘selfies’ – self-portraits
taken at arm’s length using the camera of a mobile phone.
Drawing on the Museum’s collection of portraits, we want to
identify parallels between Now and Then and discuss how
people have ‘wanted to be seen’ down the centuries. Is a selfie
simply an egocentric facet of contemporary life, or is it first
and foremost an expression of our need for mutual recognition
and an instrument of social communication?
According to relational psychologists, the most basic human
drive is for contact – we actively engage and create ourselves
164 I 165
by connecting with others. Certainly, we live in a neo-liberal,
consumerist culture that is centred on the individual and
fosters narcissism, but the search for affirmation is also a
search for connection with the collective. From infancy, we
understand how crucial it is to establish contact with those
closest to us, to interpret our parents’ facial expressions,
and vice versa. Portraits therefore have an unusual ability to
touch deep layers of our subconscious, and the encounter with
another face can thus give a sense of affirmation that is bound
up with the origins of self. Being seen with an affirming gaze
is an important part of the forming of our own identity. That
is the basis both for the older tradition of portraiture and for
the images posted on today’s social media. Portraits have a
unique quality of oscillating between illusion and reality, in a
way not found in other art forms. The viewer encounters both
a real face and a sign. It is the oscillation between these states
that makes portraits so fascinating for us as observers.
Selfies – Now and Then focuses on stereotyped visual structures
and portrait conventions. The launching of a portrait is largely
a matter of power, marketing, and establishing one’s place in
a social hierarchy, and exactly the same can be said of posting
selfies on Facebook or Instagram. Here we explore what these
images actually represent in relation to gender, ethnicity,
class and age, and what meanings different codes and norms
have and have had. The exhibition will include a slide show on
body language by the actor Ann Petrén, interacting with our
portraits. In parallel with the display, Selfies – Now and Then
will also be presented on the Nationalmuseum’s website. And
both in the exhibition and online, our visitors will be invited
to engage actively with the project in various ways.
166 I 167
(1606–1669)
Self-Portrait, 1630
W
hat are the characteristics of a selfie? We would
argue that it is not, as
is now claimed, a completely new
visual genre, but one firmly rooted
in the Western tradition of the
self-portrait. As Rembrandt has
done here, artists paint their own
portrait by looking at themselves in
a mirror. It is a process marked by
slowness, depth and introspection,
while the modern-day selfie, with
its cropped, from-above perspective,
seeks to give the impression of being
the work of a moment, improvised
and laid-back. And yet, both as a
pictorial construction and in relation to body language, fashion and
social conventions, it recalls the
practised pose we adopt when we
view ourselves in a bathroom mirror.
MG
Oil on copper, 15.5r12 cm
168 I 169
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)
Jo, the Beautiful Irish Girl, 1866
T
his painting is of Joanna
Heffernan, who was the
model and mistress of
both Whistler and Courbet. Female
models in the 19th century had low
status, being viewed as little more
than a commodity and the property
of the male artists. When Jo examined herself in the mirror, therefore,
it was a vital act, as she was entirely
dependent on her appearance to
make a living. In the consumer
culture of our own day, women are
defined by their appearance, as
objects, not allowed to age and controlled by their weight. A new study
of young people’s media behaviour
in Sweden shows that girls as young
as ten market themselves using
manipulated selfies with ‘duck face’
poses, while boys mostly play computer games and have dynamic but
unmoved ‘stone face’ poses as their
physical ideal.
MG
170 I 171
Image of the actress Ann Petrén from
her slide show on stereotypes and body language.
172 I 173
Justus van Egmont (1601–1674)
Queen Christina as Minerva, 1654
H
istory has seen changing
views of gender, but in
many of today’s selfies
we still find gender norms created
back in the 19th century. In the
17th century, gender roles were
more transformative, as this portrait of Queen Christina of Sweden
demonstrates. Christina showed
great skill in promoting herself and
the expanding major power over
which she reigned. Even after her
abdication, she marketed herself
as Alexandra Regina – queen of all
Europe, using a gender-transcending
symbolic language that broke with
the conventions of the day. Here
she is portrayed as Minerva, Roman
goddess of war and the arts. Christina
was presumably what we would
now call transsexual, and attempted
to change her gender with the help
of alchemy.
MG
Presented by Herman Wrangel
NMGrh 1853
174 I 175
Gaspar de Crayer (1584–1669)
Anne of Austria, c. 1610
P
ower elites down the ages
have always marked their
group identity using symbols
and external attributes. From the
Renaissance to the late 18th century,
portraits were important in promoting an aristocratic ideal that is
now perceived as androgynous and
gender-transcending, but which
has its roots in the court culture
of Europe. The aristocratic role was
a form of social choreography that
sought to balance body, movement,
expression and costume in a perfect
picture of nobility. The extravagant
luxury consumption of the time
controlled the entire lifestyle of the
individual, which had to be geared
to his or her place in the social
hierarchy. Not being able to live up
to what was expected meant a loss
of social standing.
MG
Transferred from the Royal Museum 1866 (Prague 1648)
176 I 177
Alexander Roslin (1718–1793)
The Lady with the Veil, 1768
T
his portrait is one of the
Nationalmuseum’s most
popular paintings, but few
are aware that it represents a French
female artist, Marie Suzanne Giroust,
who was married to Alexander
Roslin. In the 18th century, theatre
was an important part of society life
in the cities. Dressing up, disguising
oneself and playing a part was a
common form of entertainment, just
as it is today when role-play games
are so popular in social media. The
fan which the figure is playing with
expresses the seductiveness of a life
devoted to enjoyment and pleasure,
a characteristic of the elite culture
of the period, but also one that is
reflected in the consumer aesthetic
of our own day. The fan acted as an
extension of body language, putting
the focus on hands and gestures,
whose varying expressions were
seen as defining a person’s identity.
MG
Presented by a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, 1945
178 I 179
Eva Bonnier (1857–1909)
The Housekeeper, Brita Maria
(Mussa) Banck, 1890
B
oth the modern selfie and the
realistic portrait of the 19th
century are informed by a
desire to capture people in everyday
moments in their own environment.
The Realists were interested in
describing reality. The detailed
setting was intended to provide a
chain of clues to the character of the
person depicted. Eva Bonnier has
chosen to paint the family’s housekeeper Maria Banck (1830–1906)
reading the newspaper, and not in
her professional role. She is portrayed
as a strong but worn-out woman,
and as a person who knows her own
mind. This is one of the few portraits
in the Nationalmuseum not representing people from different elites.
The collections include only a scattering of portraits of non-whites and
individuals from working-class
backgrounds.
MG
Purchased 1990
NMGrh 4026
180 I 181
Artist index
Abakanowicz, Magdalena 14,
160–161
Raphael 22
Hals, Frans 34
Andersen Ring, Laurits 122–123
Hammershøi, Vilhelm 120–121
Arborelius, Olof 12, 13, 114–115
Hårleman, Carl 18–19, 54–55
Renoir, Auguste 7, 146–147
Arcimboldo, Guiseppe 26–27
Heem, Jan Davidsz. de 32–33
Roslin, Alexander 60–61, 178–179
Bergh, Richard 116, 140, 142
Hesselbom, Otto 130–131
Salmson, Hugo 100–101
Boberg, Anna 13, 130, 132–133
Hild, Eva 8
Sandberg, Johan Gustaf 14, 84–85
Bonheur, Rosa 90–91
Hill, Carl Fredrik 11, 140–141
Schultzberg, Anshelm 104–105
Bonnier, Eva 7, 116–117, 180–181
Josephson, Ernst 10, 11, 140,
Sergel, Johan Tobias 68–69
Bosschaert, Ambrosius the Elder
30–31
142–143
7, 9, 10, 11, 36–39, 40, 168–169
Sidvall, Amanda 96–97
Kändler, Johann Joachim 46–47
Sornkaew, Laor 158–159
Boucher, François 7, 10, 48–49
Købke, Christen 82–83
Sottsass, Ettore 14, 156–157
Brate, Fanny 126–127
Krouthén, Johan 102–103
Strindberg, August 7, 12, 104,
Cézanne, Paul 7, 152–153
Kulle, Axel 14
Chardin, Jean-Siméon 11, 56
Lancret, Nicolas 44–45
Sundberg, Per B. 112–113
Collin, Johan 50–51
Larsson, Carl 7, 122, 124–125
Titian 22
Corot, Camille 80–81
Larsson, Karin 124
Turner, Joseph Mallard William
Courbet, Gustave 170–171
Levé, Denis 66–67
Cranach, Lucas the Elder 20–21
Leyster, Judith 7, 34–35
Vallayer-Coster, Anne 7, 11, 56–57
Crayer, Gaspar de 176–177
Liljefors, Bruno 7, 106–109
Verhout, Constantin 11, 40–41
Delacroix, Eugène 88–89
Lindegren, Amalia 94–95
Vigée-Lebrun, Élisabeth Louise
Dossi, Dosso 22–23
Martin, Elias 70–71
Eden, Michael 8, 76–77
Melendez, Luis 58–59
Wallander, Alf 128–129
Egmont, Justus van 174–175
Michel, Claude (known as Clodion)
Watteau, Jean Antoine 7, 42–43, 44
Fjellman, Frida 8, 110–111
182 I 183
Hald, Edward 154–155
52–53
144–145
86–87
72–73
Wegmann, Bertha 118–119
Flock, Agneta 158–159
Momper, Joos de 28–29
Fontana, Orazio 24–25
Monet, Claude 146
Gate, Simon 154
Morandi, Giorgio 11
Wilhelmson, Carl 134–135
Gauguin, Paul 134, 150–151
Morisot, Berthe 7, 148–149
Zethelius, Pehr 74–75
Giroust, Marie Suzanne 60, 178
Norrström, Carl Hjalmar 14, 98–99
Zorn, Anders 7, 136–139
Gogh, Vincent van 150
Precht, Christian 50–51
Zuccaro, Taddeo 24–25
Whistler, James Abbott McNeill
118, 170
Authors of catalogue entries
MA AB AD CF MG PH LH ELK
CJO Mikael Ahlund
Anders Bengtsson
Anne Dahlström
Carina Fryklund
Margareta Gynning
Per Hedström
Linda Hinners
Eva-Lena Karlsson
Carl-Johan Olsson
Exhibition curators: Mikael Ahlund, Anders Bengtsson (Highlights)
and Margareta Gynning (Selfies – Now and Then)
Exhibition manager: Anneli Carlsson
Exhibition coordinator: Lena Granath
Exhibition designer: Joakim E. Werning
Lighting design: Jan Gouiedo
Exhibition technology and installation: The Technical Department
of Nationalmuseum, under Lennart Karlsson
Chief conservators: Britta Nilsson, Maria Franzon and Nils Ahlner
Education manager: Helén Hallgren Archer
Nationalmuseum collaborates with Svenska Dagbladet,
Fältman & Malmén and Grand Hôtel, Stockholm.
This book was published in conjunction with the exhibition
Highlights: Famous and Forgotten Art Treasures from
Nationalmuseum, 15 May – 31 August 2014, at the Royal
Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm
Editorial committee: Mikael Ahlund, Ingrid Lindell and
Janna Herder
Graphic design: BankerWessel
Translation: Martin Naylor
Publishing: Ingrid Lindell (publications manager),
Janna Herder (editor)
Photography: Linn Ahlgren, Olle Andersson, Erik Cornelius,
Cecilia Heisser, Bodil Karlsson, Åsa Lundén, Sofia Persson
and Hans Thorwid
Picture editor: Rikard Nordström
Paper: Invercote Creato, Arctic Volume Ivory and Rainbow
© Nationalmuseum, the authors and the owners of
the reproduced works
Nationalmuseum exhibition catalogue no. 671
ISBN [English edition] 978-91-7100-850-3
ISBN [Swedish edition] 978-91-7100-849-7
Print: Göteborgstryckeriet 2014
Distribution: Nationalmuseum
www.nationalmuseum.se
http://nationalmuseum.bokorder.se

Highlights: Famous and Forgotten Art Treasures

Transcription

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