Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Education and Mental Culture. Introd. by P. E. Lindström - 10. Fine Arts - Painting. By [C. R. Nyblom] Carl G. Laurin
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painting.
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same kind of painting was also found in palaces and dwelling-houses, although
with some change of subject when the purpose was secular. With the
accession of King Gustavus Vasa and the early predominance of the Vasa style in all
new palaces, a decided change appeared also in the style of painting. The
sleeping-chamber of Erik XIV in Kalmar Castle gives an idea both of decoration
and of painting. The former is "intarsia" both as regards the ornamental work
— which, like the whole room, is Renaissance in style — and as regards the
inlaid landscapes. Painting is represented by the large frieze above the wainscot,
the subject of which is a wild-boar hunt modelled in plaster and painted in
natural colours. Also the older parts of Gripsholm Castle, where the old painting,
is preserved, especially in the bed-chamber of Duke Charles ("the prison of
Johan III"), furnish an idea of native Swedish ornamental painting.
From the time of Gustavus Vasa inclusive, portraits of Swedish men and
women begin to occur, but as far as is known, they are always executed by
foreign painters — Germans or Dutchmen. Gustavus is known to have been in
communication with Jan van Scorel, a master of the old Dutch school. Portraits
exist of the King himself (1542) and of his sister Margareta (Gripsholm and
Uppsala). But it was not till the 17th century that painters of distinction
appeared in Sweden. One of them was J. H. Elbfas (died 1664), who,
between 1625 and his death, executed notable portraits of eminent men of his
time, such as Gyllenhielm, Skytte, Axel Oxenstierna. A couple of foreigners
were introduced by Queen Kristina, but they soon returned home; they were the
Dutchman, Dav. Beck (1621—56), known for his portrait of the Queen, and
the Frenchmen, Sébastien Bourdon (1616—71), who also painted her. The
most remarkable portrait of Kristina is, however, one by the Dutchman, Abr.
Wuchters (died 1683), in Uppsala, 1667. Great harm was inflicted on artistic
culture in Sweden by this queen’s carrying away with her, on her departure, those
paintings by renowned artists — chiefly Italian — which, during the Thirty Years’
War, had been brought home as booty from Southern Germany and Prague.
At the commencement of the Carolinian Period, in the latter part of the
17th century, there appeared a man destined to exercise a great influence on
art in Sweden, namely the German, David Klöcker, ennobled later on as
Ehrenstrahl (1629—98), who came about 1650 already but did not finally settle
in the country till 1661. He was then appointed "court-portrait painter", and
gradually formed a school, which, during the end of the 17th and the beginning
of the 18th century, became of importance for art, even though the
importance was transitory. In the course of a foreign tour he got the opportunity of
studying, first at Nuremberg, and then chiefly in Rome under Pietro da
Cortona. Thus, his style was based on the principle of Italian baroque, viz.
to follow in the steps of the great masters, by which also a great deal of
German heaviness affected the unavoidable presentations of allegorical subjects.
This shows plainly in his large decorative works, ceilings and wall-paintings,
e. g. the ceiling of the hall in the House of the Nobility — the "Consultation
of the Virtues" (1674) — and in similar pictures at Drottningholm. A couple of
large, but rather meaningless religious pictures are: "The Crucifixion" and "The
Last Judgment" in the "Storkyrkan" (the great church) in Stockholm. During
the whole of his activity, Ehrenstrahl shows a rather lively appreciation of colour.
But what he lacks again and again is the power of individualizing. And yet he
had begun as an excellent portrait-painter, as for example in his likeness of
Erik Dahlberg (1664, at Uppsala) and several portraits of Charles XI, alone or
together with the Royal family. That he also had an appreciative eye for nature
is shown by his pictures of horses, dogs and other animals, often with a setting
that is astonishingly modern, as well as by the landscapes he painted as
backgrounds to many of his pictures.
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