RKD STUDIES

Christina’ successor, King Karl X Gustav (1622-1660), who was no art lover, inherited what she had left in Sweden. His personal interest was limited to portraits of military commanders. Joachim von Sandrart (1606-1688) painted for him the Nuremberg peace banquet [1], a portrait of Christina [2], a large number of his courageous generals [3-4] and, last but not least, his own portrait [5], all in 1650 to 1651, meaning before Charles’ accession to power. The already-mentioned Anselm van Hulle (1601-after 1674) portrayed various officers for Karl X Gustav, as well as for Oxenstierna and Wrangel. The Gripsholm portrait collection still preserves around eighty contemporary copies after Van Hulle’s portraits of the negotiators of the Treaty of Münster, which was probably a series ordered by Karl X Gustav.¹

In contrast to Karl X Gustav, his widow, the Queen-Regent Hedwig Eleonora (1636-1715) was a decidedly art-loving woman.² For twelve years [1660-1672], she carried on the conduct of state for her underage son Karl XI, which gave her the means and opportunity to provide many artists, including some Dutchmen yet to be discussed, with representative commissions. At her death in 1715, she left behind more than two hundred paintings in Drottningholm Castle. Unfortunately, most of them were inventoried without names. A few were described as ‘Hollenska’ and only once the name Rembrandt is mentioned, to connect with the portrait of his sister which is today in the National Museum in Stockholm (Bredius 1935, no. 85) [6]. Portraits again constituted a large segment of her collection. They include works by Toussaint Gelton (c. 1630-1680), who enjoyed great success in Sweden.³

3
Joachim von Sandrart (I)
Portrait of Gustaf Kurck (1624-1689), c. 1650
Uppsala (province), Skoklosters slott, inv./cat.nr. 3078

4
Joachim von Sandrart (I) or Matthäus Merian (II)
Portrait of Adam von Pfuel (1604-1659), dated 1649
Uppsala (province), Skoklosters slott, inv./cat.nr. 3081

It would take us too far afield to examine all the old Swedish collections for their components of Dutch pictures. As always, an abundance of old paintings was obtained from Holland. For instance, the widow of art dealer Jan de Kaersgieter I (1602-1661) still had an impressive amount of 1,287 guilders outstanding for paintings delivered in Sweden.⁴ In general, portraits were continually being collected. The powerful State Chancellor Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie (1622-1686), who was related to the royal family by marriage, left the University of Uppsala, of which he was chancellor, Mierevelt’s portrait of Hugo Grotius [7] and Jacob van der Merck’s (c. 1610-1664) portrait of Daniel Heinsius [8]. These two works had been acquired by Appelboom back in 1671 at De la Gardie’s request.

Despite a predilection for French art, the chancellor also assembled a substantial collection of Dutch landscapes, genre pieces, seascapes, and still lifes over the years. The Hague burgomaster Thomas Cletscher II (1598-1666) sold him a collection of Italian and Netherlandish pictures,⁵ and he took over a series depicting The Twelve Months, painted by Sandrart, from Louis de Geer.⁶ They were not the originals, however, but a second version. A certain J.C. Danneux in 1652 offered to sell him pictures by Anthonie Waterloo (1609-1690) and Wallerant Vaillant (1623-1677), which had been seen and certified by David Beck, as well as a cabinet piece by Paulus Potter (1625-1654).⁷ In 1649, while in the Netherlands, De la Gardie hired a painter named Hendrik Munniks alias Munnichhoven (d. 1664), who followed him first to Riga and then to Sweden. Munnichhoven, who had copied works by David Beck, was probably primarily a portraitist (pictures in Gripsholm) [9-10]. De la Gardie further acquired works by Govert Camphuysen (1623/24-1672) [11], Toussaint Gelton, the aforementioned Munnichhoven and other artists and craftsmen for his Jacobsdal Castle. In 1669 Hedwig Eleonora bought the castle, which she gave to Prince Ulrik in 1684, at which time the name was changed to Ulriksdal.⁸

9
Hendrick Munniks alias Munnichhoven
Portrait of Count Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie (1622-1686) and Princess Maria Eufrosine of Pfalz-Zweibrücken (1625-1687), 1653
Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, inv./cat.nr. NMGrh 3426

It would appear that the great Louis de Geer (1587-1652), the ‘father of Swedish Industry’ ('svenska industries fader') did not bring any works of art to Sweden. His collection remained in his Amsterdam residence. In any case, we hear nothing during his lifetime to indicate that anything in the way of art made its way to his Swedish possessions in Finspång, Österby, Gimo or Leufsta, or in his Stockholm residence. Not until the 18th century does a descendent, Jean Jacques de Geer (1737-1809), inherit the picture collection from ‘the House with the Heads’ (’t Huys met de Hoofden) in Amsterdam. Some of the pictures are still in the C. de Geer’s collection in Leufsta, while others are with A. Ekman, formerly in Finspång and now in Marieholm [12-15].⁹

The first Rembrandt picture known to be on Swedish soil also got there through an inheritance. A certain Magnus Durell (1617-1677) married the daughter of Carel van Cracau (1579-1646), the Dutch envoy in Copenhagen.¹⁰ As dowry she kept Rembrandt’s Peter (of 1632, Stockholm) [15] and portraits of her parents painted by Jan van Ravesteyn (1572-1657) [16-17].¹¹

Remarkably, Göteborg, a city that was twice reconstructed from the ground up by Netherlanders and executed along Netherlandish lines,¹² did not become a centre of artistic expansion.¹³ The merchants and ship owners of the city probably had better things to do. If one wishes to gain an impression of the contents of Swedish art collections in the late 17th century, one has to study Project for a Cabinet That Could be Created at Court with Things to be Found in Sweden (Projett pour un cabinet qui se pourrait fair à la cour des choses qui se trouve en Suède), compiled by Nicodemus Tessin II (1654-1728).¹⁴ Not a single Dutch name is mentioned, only Frenchmen, Italians and some Flemings! And yet Tessin was certainly familiar with Dutch art and painters. During his Grand Tour of 1687, he also visited the Dutch Republic, where he looked up various artists, especially history painters such as Gerard de Lairesse (1641-1711), Robbert Duval (1649-1732), Michiel van Musscher (1645-1705) and Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693). He mentions landscapes by Johannes Glauber (1646-c. 1726) and flower pieces by Maria van Oosterwijck (1630-1693).¹⁵

14
Bartholomeus van der Helst
Portrait of Emanuel de Geer (1624-1692), c. 1656
Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, inv./cat.nr. NMLeu 23

15
Rembrandt
The apostle Peter, dated 1632
Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, inv./cat.nr. NM 1349