The Nationalmuseum's Acquisition of Sergel's Collections of Drawings
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
An Exceptionally Protracted Affair: The Nationalmuseum’s Acquisition of Sergel’s Collections of Drawings and Prints, NUTRÓNUTS räÑ `ÉÇÉêä∏Ñ _^I pÉåáçê `ìê~íçêI mêáåíë ~åÇ aê~ïáåÖë 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. Üáëíçêó ~åÇ íÜÉçêó çÑ ~êíLëÉêÖÉäÛë ÅçääÉÅíáçå çÑ Çê~ïáåÖë ~åÇ éêáåíë An Exceptionally Protracted Affair: The Nationalmuseum’s Acquisition of Sergel’s Collections of Drawings and Prints, NUTRÓNUTS räÑ `ÉÇÉêä∏Ñ _^I pÉåáçê `ìê~íçêI mêáåíë ~åÇ aê~ïáåÖë lå ~ ÑêÉÉòáåÖ ÅçäÇ Saturday at the end of February NUNQ , Sweden’s perhaps most celebrated and internationally renowned sculptor, Johan Tobias Sergel, passed away at the age of TP years and S months in the residence provided for him by the Crown in Hötorget in Stockholm. The building, situated by the remains of an old royal hippodrome (originally constructed entirely of tim - ber, but replaced in the NSOM s, during the reign of Gustav II Adolf, with a more permanent brick and stone edifice), was de- signated as “Banan [The Track] no. RRQ ½ ” in the official pro - perty register of the city. After Sergel’s death, the house conti - nued to serve as a studio and residence for the sculptors who suc - ceeded him as professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. The first of these was Sergel’s own favourite among his stu - dents, Johan Niklas Byström ( NTUPÓNUQU ), and the last John Bör - jeson ( NUPRÓNVNM ), who is pictured in Sergel’s former work - shop, just before his death, in a number of photographs preser - ved in the archives of the Stockholm City Museum (Fig K N ). Until just short of the mid NVRM s, the sculptor’s residence re - mained virtually intact as a living memory and monument to a lost age amidst the bustle of central Stockholm (Fig. O). Over the last forty years of its existence, it provided classrooms, studios, ac - commodation and other facilities for students at the Royal Swe - dish Academy of Fine Arts. After that, the excavators arrived with their gaping jaws to clear the way and lay the foundations for to - day’s high-rise buildings, the “Hötorget skyscrapers”, which rose up from the end of the NVRM s to the later part of the NVSM s in what used to be called the “Lower Klara district”. Sergel appears to have fallen asleep peacefully in the presen - Fig. N The sculptor John Börjeson in Sergel’s former studio, NVMN . ce of his two loyal servants, his conscientious valet Lars Renström Stockholm City Museum. and his dependable maid Christina Stenberg (generally referred to as Kristin). His physician Carl Henrik Wertmüller ( NTROÓ NUOV ) may possibly also have been in attendance. The year befo - re Sergel’s death he had made a final diagnosis, concluding that the sculptor, with his widely noted obesity and severe ailments of the joints, was suffering from dropsy, or what would nowadays be called a serious circulatory disorder. This put a heavy strain on NOP Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume OM OMNP Üáëíçêó ~åÇ íÜÉçêó çÑ ~êíLëÉêÖÉäÛë ÅçääÉÅíáçå çÑ Çê~ïáåÖë ~åÇ éêáåíë Fig. O Sergel’s former residence in Hötorget, c. NVRM . Stockholm City Museum. Sergel’s internal organs – especially his heart, lungs and kidneys ...my entire collection of pictures and Books, Original models in terracotta. – and meant that he was under the constant supervision of his Esquisses [sketches] in clay or wax … vases, plasters, my bronzes, Marble doctor. 1 pieces begun or completed. All that is in my large studio and Cabinet, the The sculptor had already made his will on NR June NUNO , du - large Group of Psyche and Cupid excepted, which belongs to the King. ring a short visit by his son Gustav to his Stockholm home. The Likewise my small collection of engraved and unengraved rings, my snuff - document – witnessed by two of Sergel’s close friends in his ad - boxes of gold or tortoiseshell, my gold pocket watch, and my two travelling 2 vancing years, the architect Carl Fredrik Sundvall ( NTRQÓNUOV ) boxes. I also bequeath to my son all my silver … and Birger Fredrik Rothoff ( NTRVÓNUPN ) of the College of Mi - ning – makes it clear that his son was to inherit the lion’s share of What the document describes as “ritningar” – a word now gene - his assets. As well as Sponga – the country estate in Ärila parish, rally used to refer to architectural or design drawings, but in rea - near Eskilstuna, which Sergel had acquired for him at great ex - lity including all the artistic drawings Sergel himself had made, pense earlier that spring, on OQ March – he was, according to the collected or received as gifts from other artists over his career of will, to have full rights of possession and disposition over: almost sixty years as an artist and sculptor – were also to go to his son, along with his collections of “copper pieces”, or prints. Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume OM OMNP NOQ Üáëíçêó ~åÇ íÜÉçêó çÑ ~êíLëÉêÖÉäÛë ÅçääÉÅíáçå çÑ Çê~ïáåÖë ~åÇ éêáåíë One has to ask why Sergel virtually disinherited his daughter, Gustav’s just one year younger sister Johanna Carolina Elisabeth (known generally to the family as Lisette), in this way as far as his collected art treasures were concerned, although the will does sti - pulate that she was to “share and share alike” with him as regards the rest of their father’s estate. There were probably not just one, but several possible rea - sons why the otherwise so generous Sergel should so one-sidedly have favoured his son. First of all, Gustav was the apple of his eye, the child long awaited until he finally became a father in NTVO , at the age of RO . And second, there was a circumstance vaguely hin - ted at in the ageing Sergel’s correspondence with his son, and in the NUNM population registers of the city of Stockholm. From the - se sources it emerges that, in the sculptor’s final years, his daugh - ter was lodged with a spinster living nearby, “Mademoiselle Fre - drica Georgii”, recorded as residing in the Klara and Lower Kungsholmen district; though with the additional remark that the girl was still to be regarded as “registered at the address of Mr Sergel, Surveyor to the King’s Household”. 3 Sergel was in addition reluctant to divide up the collections he had assembled over a long lifetime as an artist, preferring to gather them together in one place for posterity. What is more, in the enlightened NU th century and long after that – right down to modern times – there was still a widespread misconception that women were by their nature and character coquettish, generally wasteful and incapable of managing assets. 4 While the Swedish state managed within a short space of time, just a year after Sergel’s death, to raise the necessary funds to acquire from his estate a large proportion of what was judged to be his invaluable sculptural work, it would, symptomatically, be almost fifty years before there was any real awareness of and interest in his less conspicuous, but at least as important, collec - tions of drawings and, in some cases, truly unique prints.