Three NT th-Century Paintings from the Collection of Gustaf Adolf Sparre

Carina Fryklund Curator, Old Master Drawings and Paintings

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm

Volume OM Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Picture Editor Every effort has been made by the publisher to is published with generous support from the Rikard Nordström credit organizations and individuals with regard Friends of the Nationalmuseum. to the supply of photographs. Please notify the Photo Credits publisher regarding corrections. The Nationalmuseum collaborates with © Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig Svenska Dagbladet, Fältman & Malmén (p. NQ ) Graphic Design and Grand Hôtel Stockholm. © The Gothenburg Museum of Art/Hossein BIGG Sehatlou (p. NU ) Items in the Acquisitions section are listed © Malmö Art Museum/Andreas Rasmusson Layout alphabetically by artists’ names, except in the case (p. OO ) Agneta Bervokk of applied arts items, which are listed in order of © Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York (p. OV ) their inventory numbers. Measurements are in © RMN Grand Palais/Musée du Louvre, Translation and Language Editing centimetres – Height H, Breadth B, Depth D, Paris/Hervé Lewandowski (p. PMF Gabriella Berggren and Martin Naylor. Length L, Width W, and Diameter Diam. © The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles – except for those of drawings and prints, which (Fig. QI p. PN ) Publications are given in millimetres. © RMN Grand Palais/Musée du Louvre, Ingrid Lindell (Publications Manager), Paris/René-Gabriel Ojéda (Fig. RI p. PN ) Janna Herder (Editor). Cover Illustration © Guilhem Scherf (p. PO ) Alexander Roslin ( NTNU ÓNTVP ), The Artist and his © Bridgeman/Institute of Arts, Detroit (p. PP ) Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum is published Wife Marie Suzanne Giroust Portraying Henrik © Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris/Jean Tholance annually and contains articles on the history Wilhelm Peill, NTST . Oil on canvas, NPN ñ VUKR cm. (p. PQ ) and theory of art relating to the collections of Donated by the Friends of the Nationalmuseum, © RMN Grand Palais/Musée du Louvre, Paris the Nationalmuseum. Sophia Giesecke Fund, Axel Hirsch Fund (p. PR ) and Mr Stefan Persson and Mrs Denise Persson. © Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Nationalmuseum Nationalmuseum, åã TNQNK Rome/Mauro Coen (Figs, SI NM and NO , Box NSNTS pp. NNQ ÓNNS ) ëÉ ÓNMP OQ Stockholm, Sweden Publisher © Mikael Traung (Fig. T, p. NNQ ) www.nationalmuseum.se Magdalena Gram © Stockholm City Museum (p. NOP ) © Nationalmuseum and the authors http://www.stockholmskallan.se/Soksida/Post/?n Editor id=319 ISSN OMMNJVOPU Janna Herder © Stockholm City Museum/Lennart af Petersens (p. NOQ ) Editorial Committee © http://www.genealogi.se/component/ Mikael Ahlund, Magdalena Gram, Janna Herder, mtree/soedermanland/eskilstuna/ Helena Kåberg and Magnus Olausson. a_zetherstroem_/22850?Itemid=604 (p. NOR ) © http://www.genealogi.se/component/ Photographs mtree/bohuslaen/marstrand/robert-dahlloefs- Natinalmuseum Photographic Studio/Linn atelier/22851?Itemid=604 (p. NOT ) Ahlgren, Erik Cornelius, Anna Danielsson, Cecilia Heisser, Bodil Karlsson, Per-Åke Persson, Sofia Persson and Hans Thorwid. ~ÅèìáëáíáçåëLíÜêÉÉ NTíÜJÅÉåíìêó é~áåíáåÖë

Three NT th-Century Paintings from the Collection of Gustaf Adolf Sparre

Carina Fryklund Curator, Old Master Drawings and Paintings

qÜÉ k~íáçå~äãìëÉìã has acquired three important Flemish and Dutch cabi - net pictures from the former collection of Count Gustaf Adolf Sparre ( NTQSÓNTVQ ): two genre scenes in a smaller format by David Teniers the Younger (Fig. N) and Jacob Toorenvliet (Fig. O), and a landscape by Gijsbrecht Leytens (Fig. P). All three paintings are in their collector’s distinctive carved and gilded wood frames in Neoclassi - cal Gustavian style, in two standard designs. Gustaf Adolf Sparre af Söfdeborg (Fig. R) was heir to one of Sweden’s wealthiest 1 merchant families. Born on S January NTQS , he was the son of Rutger Axel Sparre, a director of the Swedish East India Com - pany. His mother, Sara Christina Sahlgren, was from a prominent and cultured Gothenburg family of merchants. Their marriage in NTQM brought an influx of wealth to the Sparre dynasty. Following the fire which in winter NTQS , a week after Gustaf Adolf’s birth, destroyed the original Sahlgren house in Gothenburg, Sara’s mother Birgitta Sahlgren commissioned Bengt Wilhelm Carlberg ( NSVSÓNTTU ), the city’s leading architect, to rebuild on the same site, facing Stora Hamngatan and its canal, in NTRP . This impressive Neoclassical palace, known as the Sahlgren-Sparre Palace, which was to house Gustaf Adolf Sparre’s collection, still stands today. Gustaf Adolf’s parents died when he was still young. He was educated at the uni - Fig. N David Teniers the Younger ( NSNMÓNSVM ), Tavern Interior with Peasant Lighting his Pipe, NSQM s. versities of Lund and Uppsala, but the Oil on oak, OPKV ñ NV cm. Purchase: The Wiros Fund. Nationalmuseum, åã TNORK strongest influence on his further educa - tion was his highly cultivated grandmother,

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the very best in Sweden next to the Royal Collection. By New Year NTTO , when Sparre re - turned to Gothenburg from his European travels, he was the owner, together with his cousin Jacob Sahlgren, of the Sahlgren- Sparre Palace. He decided to modernise the building, redecorating and refurnish - ing in fashionable Gustavian style a suite of rooms, in particular two drawing rooms on the first floor that were to house his picture collection. The style of the decoration re - flected the recent remodelling of the Royal Palace in Stockholm, and it seems likely that Sparre employed the same architect and decorators. Around NTTR Sparre com - missioned ornamental frames for the paintings, to match the rest of the gallery’s decor. These were probably made by the same joiners, including the sculptor Gustaf Johan Fast, who created the apartment’s mirror frames and panelling. The Swedish art historian Ingmar Hasselgren noted that Fast, who had executed some of the deco - rative work in the Royal Palace, was respon - sible for four mirrors in Sparre’s apart - ment, and suggested that he may also have been responsible for the boiseries in the re - decorated rooms in the Sparre-Sahlgren Palace. Since Fast usually worked under the court architect Jean Eric Rehn, whose work resembles the renovations in the Fig. O Jacob Toorenvliet ( NSQMÓNTNV ), Man Holding a Jug (The Sense of Taste), c. NSTV . Oil on copper, Sparre apartment, Hasselgren also suggest - NSKQ ñ NPKQ cm. Purchase: The Wiros Fund. Nationalmuseum, åã TNOSK ed that Rehn may have been Sparre’s ar - chitect. 2 As an art collector, Sparre was particu - Birgitta Sahlgren, who encouraged her were drawn, and French culture and taste larly keen on Dutch and Flemish genre grandson’s interest in the arts. From the in the arts predominated, including the painting, from simple depictions of drink - middle of the NU th century onwards, gen - collecting of paintings, drawings and sculp - ing and smoking peasants to the richly de - erations of wealthy young Swedes were en - ture. This was the age of Count Carl Gustaf tailed fijnschilderij of the Leiden artists. He couraged to make the Grand Tour of con - Tessin (see article on p. NMV ), whose mag - also assembled a collection of Old Master tinental Europe. Birgitta Sahlgren thus en - nificent collection constitutes the core of drawings, eventually inherited by his son-in- couraged her grandson to travel and pro - the French Rococo holdings in the Na - law Jacob Gustaf De la Gardie, parts of vided the necessary funding. Gustaf Adolf tionalmuseum, which are among the great - which are today housed in the Nationalmu - 3 was abroad continuously from NTSU until est and best preserved outside France. seum. The majority of Sparre’s picture col - the end of NTTN . Some of his diaries and Tessin also assembled an important collec - lection comprised small-scale Flemish and his correspondence with his grandmother tion of Old Master drawings. Sparre’s large Dutch cabinet pictures from the NT th cen - have survived, and provide an insight into collection was similarly built up primarily tury. Although Sparre did acquire copies of his growing interest in the arts, especially through extensive purchases in the some large-scale religious paintings, such as painting, and his urge to collect. Paris was Netherlands and in Paris during the later Peter Paul Rubens’ Descent from the Cross and a magnet to which Swedish Grand Tourists NU th century, and was considered one of Anthony van Dyck’s grisaille ricordo of his

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Fig. P Gijsbrecht Leytens ( NRUSÓNSQOLRT ), Wooded Mountain Landscape with Waterfall and Travellers, first half of NT th century. Oil on oak, SUKQ ñ NMNKR cm. Purchase: The Wiros Fund. Nationalmuseum, åã TNOQK

Crucifixion , he purchased very few large Antwerp painter David Teniers the landscapist Gijsbrecht Leytens ( NRUSÓÅK 4 works. Indeed, few pictures of any dimen - Younger ( NSNMÓNSVM ) – the artist repre - NSQOLRS ), who is better known for his at - sions greater than one metre entered the sented by the largest number of works in mospheric winter scenes. With its charac - Sparre collection, one exception being Jan Sparre’s collection – and Man Holding a Jug teristic features – an imposing north Euro - Lievens’ magnificent The Apostle Paul at his (Taste) (Fig. O) from around NSTV , by the pean mountain and forest landscape com - Writing Desk, which the Nationalmuseum Leiden fijnschilder Jacob Toorenvliet bined with fanciful Italianate buildings, pas - 5 was fortunately able to acquire in OMNO . (NSQMÓNTNV ), are prime examples of the toral idylls and exotically dressed groups of Sparre’s tastes were entirely in line with pre - tastes of the age. Another important group travellers – the Stockholm picture is closely vailing trends among NU th-century connois - in the Sparre collection consisted of land - comparable to the artist’s late Mountain seurs in the Netherlands and Paris where, scapes and pastoral scenes. The impressive Landscape in the Rain (Fig. Q), one of his as graphic reproductions, the works of Wooded Mountain Landscape with Waterfall very few landscapes other than winter 6 Dutch and Flemish artists were widely ap - and Travellers (Fig. P) is a typical Flemish scenes. The painting is representative of preciated at this time. The recently ac - fantasy landscape in the tradition of Joos de key trends in Flemish landscape painting quired Tavern Interior with Peasant Lighting Momper, probably painted in the first half after NSMM . his Pipe (Fig. N) from the NSQM s, by the of the NT th century by the rare Antwerp

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Fig. Q Gijsbrecht Leytens ( NRUSÓNSQOLRT ), Mountain Landscape in the Rain. Oil on oak, QMKO ñ TNKR cm. Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig.

During Sparre’s lifetime, the greater part of which are in identical frames, seem to have made a great impression on the young his collection, fifty-eight out of a total of up been hung as pendants, as part of an Swede, it was nonetheless his travels in the to a hundred pictures – including the three arrangement that had as its centrepiece a Low Countries that shaped his collecting recently acquired by the Museum – was dis - large Bacchanal by Jacob Jordaens. The lat - tastes, making his collection rather unusual played in the gallery that he had set up in ter was surrounded mostly by small-scale in the Scandinavia of his day. While he the Sahlgren-Sparre Palace. Sparre moved genre pictures by artists such as Adriaen wrote extensively about what he saw on his some of his collection to Castle Kulla Gun - van Ostade, Willem van Mieris and Adriaen travels and what impressed him, he re - narstorp, the country seat near Helsing - van der Werff, including several with drink - mained silent on the subject of his acquisi - borg that he had bought in NTTR , and ing and smoking peasants. On another tions. However, it is clear that he started to where he lived after his marriage to Elisa - wall, Leytens’ Mountain Landscape was hung collect Dutch and Flemish Old Masters on beth Ramel in NTTT . An inventory drawn as a pendant to an identically framed wood - his first visit to the Netherlands in up following his death in NTVQ gives the ed landscape by Alexander Keirinckx show - NTSUÓNTSV , and he continued to buy in a precise locations of each of the fifty-eight ing A Skirmish between Cavalry Men and Foot very similar taste at auctions during his stays paintings kept in Gothenburg, all of which Soldiers. King Gustav III rearranged his own in Paris. Sparre left Sweden for the first were in the Blue Drawing Room. Allowing art gallery in the NTUM s, very much along time in the summer of NTSU , travelling to for paintings that have been dispersed, it the lines of the new hanging in Gothen - London, where he stayed with Malte would be possible to recreate this hanging burg, which Hasselgren suggested may Ramel, a friend from his student days and fairly accurately. The pictures were hung in have served as the model for the king. 7 his future brother-in-law. A letter from symmetrical groups – portraits, landscapes Sparre’s tastes as a collector were Birgitta Sahlgren dated P August, thanking and genre scenes mixed together – with a formed during his Grand Tour of England, him for his two earlier letters, contains common vertical centre-line, and pendants Holland and Belgium, as well as during some good advice and reveals the strength arranged at the sides. Teniers’ Tavern Interi - longer stays in Paris in the years NTSUÓNTTO of the bond between them. She hoped or and Toorenvliet’s Man Holding a Jug, and NTTVÓNTUM . While Paris certainly “that my dearest grandson is careful with

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume OM OMNP NQ ~ÅèìáëáíáçåëLíÜêÉÉ NTíÜJÅÉåíìêó é~áåíáåÖë his money, remembering that it is easy to give out money, but not always easy to bring it back into one’s purse …”. 8 Sparre seems to have enjoyed life in London, where he frequented the theatre and opera. Here he met and befriended the architect William Chambers, born in Gothenburg to English parents, and it seems likely that Chambers provided an introduction to London collec - tions. Sparre’s first months of travel in the Low Countries are well documented in his surviving diary from Q October– Q Novem - ber NTSU . He left London for Flanders on 4 October, travelling to Bruges, where he spent the better part of eight days visiting the city’s art treasures. Among the works he saw, he especially admired those by the Netherlandish NR th-century masters Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling, Baroque mas - terpieces by Rubens, and Michelangelo’s fa - mous sculpture of The Madonna and Child in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk. He then left for Ghent, where he continued to seek out picture collections, noting works by Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, Gerard Seghers and Gaspar de Crayer. In the Michielskerk he admired Van Dyck’s Cruci - fixion . After a three-day stay in Ghent, Sparre then travelled to Antwerp, staying overnight in the Schelde city before contin - uing on to Amsterdam via Utrecht and Gouda. In Amsterdam he admired Rem - brandt’s Nightwatch , along with pictures by the Rembrandt pupil Govaert Flinck and by Van Dyck. Of greatest interest from this short stay in Amsterdam is an entry in his Fig. R Joseph-Siffred Duplessis ( NTOR ÓNUMO ), Portrait of Gustaf Adolf Sparre, NTSV . Private collection. diary noting that someone there had made arrangements for paintings he had pur - chased to be forwarded to Gothenburg. 9 After six days in Amsterdam, Sparre tailed notes of the pictures on display, and visited the collection of Jan and Pieter van this collection clearly made a strong im - Bisschop, admiring an array of cabinet pic - travelled to Haarlem on OO October, then on to Leiden and The Hague. At The pression on him. He was most taken with tures of the kind his own collection would Hague he may have had introductions Paulus Potter’s Bull and Gerard Dou’s The eventually comprise, works by Dujardin, through Count Gustaf Philip Creutz, who Young Mother, both now in the Mauritshuis. Wouwerman, Mieris and Dou. From Rotter - had been Swedish ambassador there and Other artists mentioned form a roll call of dam he went back to Antwerp, where he ad - who, as ambassador to France, was to be - those he was to collect himself, among oth - mired the Baroque altarpieces and sculp - come a close friend. Sparre visited the cele - ers Gabriel Metsu, Van der Werff, Jan tures in churches and monasteries. He sing- brated Cabinet of Willem V, largely formed Steen, Adriaen van Ostade, Teniers, Brouw - led out for praise Rubens’ Descent from the er and Karel Dujardin. Sparre then trav - Cross in the cathedral. Seeing this work in the NTRM s and ÛSM s, and still being added to at the time of his visit. Here he made de - elled to Delft and to Rotterdam, where he must have inspired him to purchase the

NR Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume OM OMNP ~ÅèìáëáíáçåëLíÜêÉÉ NTíÜJÅÉåíìêó é~áåíáåÖë small copy of it on copper, though it is not longing to the landgraves of Hesse-Kassel, of Sparre’s biography and description of his known whether he bought it during this vis - which has as its core a large group of Dutch collection given in the present article are based it to Antwerp or on another occasion. He and Flemish cabinet pictures of the kind on Hasselgren’s seminal book unless otherwise noted. probably also visited the Dominican con - Sparre evidently enjoyed. When Sparre re - Hasselgren , pp. . vent of St Catherine, which housed Van OK NVTQ NMRÓNMU turned to Paris several years later, in Börje Magnusson, “The De la Gardie Dyck’s altarpiece of Christ on the Cross Adored PK NTTVÓNTUM , staying as the guest of Ambas - (Borrestad) Collection of Drawings”, in by Saints Catherine and Dominic, of which he sador Creutz, he took the opportunity to Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, SI NVUOI pp. owned the artist’s autograph grisaille ricor - add to his picture collection. Buying at the NNPÓNQM ; and idem, “Dutch and Flemish do . The latter is reputed to have been kept Drawings in Swedish Collections”, in Art Bulletin Poullain sale in NTUM , possibly with Langli - by the nuns in the convent, and later sold to of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Volume er acting as his agent, he acquired Gerard NOI OMMRI an unidentified Swedish nobleman. In Stockholm OMMS , pp. VNÓVS . Ter Borch’s remarkable picture of A Horse Antwerp Sparre also visited dealers, noting QK The Rubens copy and Van Dyck’s ricordo down prices, although his diary does not Stable , now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los both sold at auction in London, Sotheby’s, specify what he himself may have bought. Angeles, as well as others by Isack van RÓS December OMMT , lots S and NNM . At the dealership of Jean Pilaret, he ad - Ostade and Jordaens. RK See most recently Carina Fryklund, “The Apostle Paul at His Writing Desk”, in mired a Teniers “extraordinaire” – though Sparre and his wife Elisabeth Ramel Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, probably not, by its description, any of the had only one child who survived infancy, NVI Christina, who married Jacob Gustaf De la OMNOI Stockholm, OMNP , pp. NNÓNS , with earlier ones he owned. He visited the premises of literature cited in n. to that article. Gardie. It is not known precisely when N Jacques Emanuel van Lancken, where he Rüdiger Klessmann, Herzog Anton Ulrich- Sparre’s widow Elisabeth moved the entire SK noted a landscape by Teniers as well as a Museum Braunschweig, Die flämischen Gemälde des picture collection from the couple’s small Ostade of a peasant smoking. NTK und NU . Jahrhunderts, Braunschweig OMMP , Gothenburg residence to Kulla Gunnars- We do not know when Sparre left Antwerp, pp. TQÓTR , no. TM , illus. Although not signed, the or what his movements were in the last torp, where she remained until her death Braunschweig picture has been attributed to the in NUPM . Upon her death, Kulla Gun - artist since before NTPT . On Leytens see further weeks of NTSU , but he was in Paris early in narstorp and its contents passed to her P. J. J. Reelick, “Bijdrage tot identificatie van den and seems to have remained there NTSV grandson Gustaf Adolf de la Gardie Meester der Winterlandschappen (G. Leytens?)”, until NTTN . He clearly enjoyed life in the in Oud-Holland pp. ; Edith (NUMMÓPP ). Gustaf Adolf remained child - RVI NVQOI TQÓTV French capital, staying on despite en - Greindl, “Contribution à la connaissance du less, so that when he died in NUPP the estate treaties from his grandmother to return passed to his father Jacob Gustaf de la style de Gysbrecht Leytens”, in Pantheon PI NVTPI pp. ; and Ursula Härting, “Der Meister home in NTSV . He spent substantial sums Gardie ( ). De la Gardie sold ORQÓOSP NTSUÓNUQO der Winterlandschaften, der Maler Gysbrecht there, and we may assume that some of Kulla Gunnarstorp in to Count Carl NUPT Leytens”, in Die Kunst, NVUU , pp. OMÓOT . these were for pictures. In NTSV he sat for a de Geer, and a few years later, probably TK Hasselgren NVTQ , pp. NPTÓNPU . portrait by the French painter Joseph- around , the picture collection fol - NUQM UK The correspondence, kept in the De la Gardie Siffred Duplessis ( NTOR ÓNUMO ) (Fig. R). lowed. Count De Geer kept the collection Archive at the University of Lund, is quoted by Like many young Swedes visiting Paris, he intact for a few years, but in NURR he sent Hasselgren NVTQ , pp. ONÓOO . probably stayed at the Swedish embassy, the vast majority of it to his granddaughter, VK A picture by Adriaen van der Werff, where the ambassador, Count Creutz, held who kept it on her estate of Wanås. 10 Two Children Playing with a Cat Holding a Bird in Its Jaws, seems to have been purchased at auction sway over a cultivated circle of friends. The Nationalmuseum’s acquisition, in Amsterdam in . See the sale catalogue, Creutz was extremely influential, and cer - made possible by a generous donation NTSV from the Wiros Fund, constitutes a signifi - London, Sotheby’s, R December OMMT , lot NQK tainly helped Sparre, along with many oth - The collection was passed down through the cant addition to the collection of th-cen - NMK er young Swedes, to gain access to French NT Wachtmeister family and kept at Wanås, where, tury cabinet paintings. At the same time, it cultural life. He had a notable collection of until NVTU , it was held as entailed property. Over provides a valuable insight into patterns of what were then contemporary pictures. In the years, the original Sparre collection has been private collecting in NU th-century Sweden. dispersed, most recently in , when some autumn NTTM Sparre travelled to Geneva, OMMT QM paintings were auctioned at Sotheby’s, London, visiting Voltaire on the return journey to Notes: and on December , when another four Georg Göthe, Tafvelsamlingen på Wanås, R OMNO Paris. Letters from his grandmother reveal NK were sold at Bukowskis, Stockholm, including Stockholm ; Ingmar Hasselgren, her increasing frailty, and on NO May NTTN NUVR the three now acquired. In the National- Konstsamlaren Gustaf Adolf Sparre, , OMNO she died. This seems to have precipitated NTQSÓNTVQ museum was able to acquire The Apostle Paul at his PhD diss., University of Gothenburg ; NVTQ Writing Desk directly from the owners. Sparre’s return to Gothenburg. On his idem , “Konstsamlaren Gustaf Adolf Sparre och homeward journey he stopped in Kassel to Sparreska våningen i Göteborg”, in Konsthistorisk see the celebrated collection of pictures be - tidskrift RT , NVUU , pp. NQNÓNQQ . The details

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