The Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm is a journal devoted to art history. It is published in English with a content that ranges from older master paintings to contemporary design. This, the second part of Art Bulletin volume 28, focuses primarily on acquisitions in 2021.
Cover of volume 28:2: Merry-Joseph Blondel, Self-Portrait, NM 7592.
The Art Bulletin is published through DiVA (a publishing system for research publications and student essays and a digital archive for long-term preservation of publications). You can also reach it via the links below. You can open, or download the publication in its entirety, or the articles separately.
Download Art Bulletin Volume 28:2, high resolution pdf
Download Art Bulletin Volume 28:2, low resolution pdf
Articles
Foreword
Martin Olin
The Education of Cupid by Jacques Stella
Martin Olin
In a 1693 inventory of her belongings, Claudine Bouzonnet Stella (1636–1697), niece and heir of the painter Jacques Stella (1596–1657), lists among the works executed by her uncle “twelve small paintings … with the history of Venus and Cupid”. A previously unpublished painting of The Education of Cupid, now in the Nationalmuseum, is ascribed to Jacques Stella and identified as one of the listed pictures. It is discussed in relation to other works with similar iconography by Jacques and Claudine Stella.
Alexander Cooper’s Portrait of the Winter King and his Family
Magnus Olausson
Thanks to financial assistance from the Anna and Hjalmar Wicander Fund, the Museum has recently been able to expand its collection of portrait miniatures by the 17th century’s leading artist in this field, the English painter Alexander Cooper (1609–1660). This article specifically covers a group of miniatures that depicts Frederick V of the Palatinate (“the Winter King”), his spouse Elizabeth Stuart and other members of their family.
Two Children’s Portraits in Pastel of the Sisters Georgiana and Henrietta Elizabeth Cavendish by John Russell
Daniel Prytz
The Nationalmuseum has acquired two pendant pastel portraits of Georgiana and her sister Henrietta Elizabeth “Harriet” Cavendish, aged six and five. The portraits are the work of John Russell (1745–1806), one of the foremost pastelists in the second half of the 18th century. These are the first examples of pastels by a British artist in the Museum’s collections.
Claude Hoin – A Forgotten Polymath of L’Ancien Régime
Magnus Olausson
French pictorial art is well represented in the acquisitions in 2021, not least thanks to large donations from the Hedda and N.D. Qvist Fund. This article presents the relatively unknown artist Claude Hoin (1750–1817), whose biography is illustrated with examples from the Museum’s collections, including two of the year’s new acquisitions, a drawing of a young woman and a pastel portrait of a drummer boy.
A Self-Portrait and an Oil Study for Aeneas Rescuing his Father Anchises from the Burning Troy – Two Important Works by Merry-Joseph Blondel
Daniel Prytz
The Nationalmuseum has purchased two works by the gifted and somewhat overlooked French painter Merry-Joseph Blondel (1781–1853), whose art straddled the Neoclassical and Romantic movements. The two works examined here are from his prodigious and prize-winning student years in the early 19th century, and demonstrate his close friendship with Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867).
The Weeping Birch by Ester Almqvist
Cecilia Widenheim
The Nationalmuseum’s recent acquisition The Weeping Birch by Ester Almqvist (1869–1934) constitutes a departure from her previous oeuvre and is one of the works by Almqvist that is closest to Symbolism. The painting would become widely travelled and was displayed at the 1900 Paris Exposition, and in the following years in Stockholm, Munich, Gothenburg, Copenhagen and at the St. Louis World’s Fair in Missouri. The purchase of the painting was financed by the Axel and Nora Lundgren Fund.
The Firmament, a Fire Surround by Anna Petrus
Cilla Robach
Designs with elaborate decorations, executed with high artisanal quality, characterized the Swedish Grace of the 1920s. One of the highlights of the period was Anna Petrus' (1886–1949) monumental cast iron fire surround for the luxury liner M/S Kungsholm in 1928. Her background as a sculptor is visible in the muscular Gods and creatures that make up the surface of the fire surround.
Four Plates from an Early 17th-century Limoges Enamel Roman Emperors on Horseback Series
Françoise Barbe
In 2020, Musée du Louvre purchased an enamel plate, part of a series that originally probably featured the twelve Roman emperors. Another plate from this series was sold to a private collection and two plates have long been part of the Nationalmuseum’s collections. All four plates bear the initials IL which have been identified as those of the enameller Jean Limosin (c. 1580–1646).
A Young Student at his Desk – A Rediscovered Genre Painting by Carel Fabritius
Carina Fryklund and Lena Dahlén
The painting A Young Student at his Desk was acquired by the Nationalmuseum in 2012 and is currently undergoing comprehensive conservation treatment. The article presents a new attribution of the work to the Dutch artist and Rembrandt pupil Carel Fabritius (1622–1654), dating it to his youth in immediate proximity to the master. The attribution is based on stylistic analysis and examination of painting materials and technique.
The Parthenon Frieze in the Nationalmuseum
Pontus Dahlström
There is a plaster cast of the Parthenon Frieze in the stairwell leading to the top floor of the Nationalmuseum. The original plan was to give the frieze a prominent position, but since the Museum opened to the public in the summer of 1866, the plaster cast have been more of an interior detail than a museum object. Is there an art-historical explanation for this? Can the placement in the stairwell even be interpreted as an early modernist approach that foreshadows today's democratic Sweden?
The Friends of the Nationalmuseum – The Year in Review 2021
Anders Lundin
See all the previous editions of Art Bulletin
Editorial staff
Editors: Ludvig Florén och Martin Olin.
Editorial Committee: Eva-Lena Bergström, Ludvig Florén, Helena Kåberg, Martin Olin och Cilla Robach.
The publication has been funded by the Friends of the Nationalmuseum.
E-ISSN: 2001-9238