Acquisitions for the Reopened Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2011

Stockholm Supplement 2018.qxp_Layout 1 25/09/2018 14:35 Page 1 Acquisitions for the reopened Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2011–18 Stockholm Supplement 2018.qxp_Layout 1 25/09/2018 14:35 Page 2 Stockholm Supplement 2018.qxp_Layout 1 25/09/2018 14:35 Page 3 Acquisitions for the reopened Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2011–18 ork on the newly refurbished Nationalmuseum, was a clear educational and art-historical endeavour in the Museum’s Stockholm, which reopens to the public on 13th acquisitions policy, centred on notions of styles and periods, gradually this October, has built on three simultaneous and faded away in favour of a focus on aesthetic experience alone. The solitary parallel projects: renovation and remodelling of artistic genius was seen as supplying material for a dramatic narrative, Wthe building, a new display of the collection and against a backdrop built increasingly around individual masterpieces. new acquisitions. Alongside transforming the old building into a museum that is tter for purpose and more secure, Sleeper awakened by a young woman with a lit wick, or Il Fumacchio, considerable energy has gone into making the collections more accessible. by Nicolas Régnier. c.1622–25. Canvas, 101 by 133 cm. This has involved both showing well-known works from the collections Gift of the Friends of the Nationalmuseum, 2011. NM 7077. in a new way and rediscovering others that, for one reason or another, had fallen into obscurity. This scene of ribaldry was presumably invented by Régnier, a Franco-Flemish A review of the extensive holdings of the Nationalmuseum highlighted Caravaist. A courtesan plays a prank on a handsome young prodigal who has dozed a number of gaps. These were not only the result of insucient funds, but o in a tavern after a game of cards. The unsuspecting sleeper is about to be rudely just as much a reection of the prevailing tastes of dierent periods. In awakened by smoke from the lit wick held under his nose, a popular joke at the time. With a gesture enjoining silence, the prankster invites the viewer’s complicity. The the museum world, there has long been an almost morbid fear of going louche characters from the artist’s Roman milieu, the virtuosity in the rendering of anywhere near the concept of taste. Nonetheless, the inuence it has realistic details, the close-up view and accentuated chiaroscuro all contribute to the exerted is clear. Certain artistic epochs have been held in high regard, illusion of spontaneity. The painting was a gift to mark the centenary of the Friends others viewed as less interesting, even decadent. Although originally there of the Nationalmuseum. REPRINTED FROM THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE | 160 | OCTOBER 2018 887 Stockholm Supplement 2018.qxp_Layout 1 25/09/2018 14:35 Page 4 Acquisitions for the reopened Nationalmuseum, Stockholm Most European countries have state funding for the acquisition of Installation view of the eighteenth-century galleries at the examples of ne and applied arts for their national art museums; Sweden Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. 2018. (Photograph Bruno Ehrs). does not. The Friends of the Nationalmuseum, founded in 1911 by the then A gift made in 2011 (the centenary of the Friends of the National- Crown Prince, Gustaf Adolf (later Gustaf VI Adolf ), and Thorsten Laurin, museum) chimed well with the new policy: Sleeper awakened by a young has played a crucial role in adding important works to the permanent woman with a lit wick, also known as Il Fumacchio, by the Caravaist Nicolas collection. The situation was further improved when the Museum Régnier. The painting was bought from a British art dealer under the eyes acquired funds of its own through a series of generous donations in the of another major international museum. As testimony to its signicance, latter half of the twentieth century. it has been exhibited on several occasions in the short time since its These substantial nancial gifts, combined with the Museum’s acquisition. The following year the Museum was able to purchase Jan existing funds, have facilitated an active acquisitions policy. Furthermore. Lievens’s The apostle Paul. This painting was in a private Swedish collection the Nationalmuseum lacks the often complex bureaucracy of many at the time, and could be acquired only thanks to the Wiros Fund. museums around the world, and has been able to respond quickly to With the advent of the internet and online auctions, the art market proposed acquisitions, without complicated decision-making procedures. has evolved, changing the basic conditions for acquisitions. It is most What is more, the Museum has chosen to think beyond iconic artists advantageous to buy works directly at source, side-stepping the middle- and to focus instead on aquiring works by qualitatively strong, but often man. At the same time, the prices paid for Old Masters have decreased, overlooked gures. when compared with those for contemporary art. These trends have Acquiring works by key artists certainly remains a priority, but now greatly beneted the Nationalmuseum and changed the routes by which context carries at least as much weight as artistic strength. Work on it makes acquisitions. Nowadays, no auction is inaccessible and there is the new display of the collection has greatly revitalised the Museum’s a well-developed body of knowledge regarding price uctuations and in acquisitions policy and broadened its criteria. Everything that is the shape of documentation of works of art. acquired must be capable of being shown in a variety of contexts. Works Surprisingly, pictorial art from the other Nordic countries was one that have a compelling history or reinforce a context already in place in of the most neglected sections of the collection. Not that the National- the collection have a denite advantage. This is a natural consequence museum lacked ambition in this area. In the early twentieth century, of the integration of art forms at the reopened Nationalmuseum. In several of its directors-general actively sought to acquire nineteenth- addition, there is a concern to work with clearly visible themes. The century Danish paintings. Given the lack of endowments, the Friends Museum has not primarily been looking for artistic ‘autographs’, in often played an important role here, as did one private Danish donor, the the sense of artists whose fame in itself justies an acquisition, or insurance magnate and art collector Wilhelm Hansen at Ordrupgaard. works that can hold their own independently of others on display in Despite several gifts and targeted purchases, in 2014 the Nationalmuseum’s the collections. collection of Danish Golden Age art, for example, comprised no more than 888REPRINTED FROM THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE | 160 | OCTOBER 2018 Stockholm Supplement 2018.qxp_Layout 1 25/09/2018 14:35 Page 5 forty works. Over the next four years, that number was to triple thanks to acquisitions from international auctions and art dealers. This was the combined result of several large nancial gifts and a clear expression of intent on the part of the Museum. This focus on Danish painters of the rst half of the nineteenth century has been pursued in parallel with acquisitions of French and German paintings from the Romantic era. German works from that period used to be virtually non-existent in the Nationalmuseum’s collections, while there was just a handful of French ones, with no mutual connections. To a large extent, the aim has been to remedy this deciency, which had previously made the display of this part of the collection incomprehensible. Art Deco was also for long a neglected part of the collection. Such was the tenacity of the speedy aesthetic judgment that Modernism and functionalism had passed on the period that no acquisitions were made for almost seventy years. Not until some years into the twenty-rst century did tastes and attitudes change, but by then so too, unfortunately, had prices. Today, unique objects from the great world exhibitions in Paris and New York are much sought after and only to be had at great expense, if at all. Nonetheless, the Museum has managed to make several important purchases, rectifying some of the mistakes of the past. The biest single source of funds has been the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, followed by the Friends of the Nationalmuseum. For a long time, portrait photography was regarded not as a ne art but as a mechanical reproductive technique. Since 2002 the Museum has actively collected photographic portraits, making signicant acquisitions in this eld for the Swedish National Portrait Gallery at Gripsholm Castle. There is a limitation in that the sitters must be Swedish, but that does not apply to the artists and so the collection now includes three portraits by Irving Penn. MAGNUS OLAUSSON Director of Collections, The Nationalmuseum, Stockholm Translated from the Swedish by Martin Naylor. Above right Elizabeth I (1533–1603), Queen of England, by Nicholas Hilliard (1547–1619). c.1586–87. Watercolour on vellum, diam. 3.2 cm. Purchased with the support of the Hjalmar and Anna Wicander Fund, 2010. NMB 2594. This miniature, one of twenty depicting Queen Elizabeth I by Hillard to have survived, portrays her in her fties. Although it shows the eects of both ageing and earlier harsh restoration, much of the original painting is intact. The artist has devoted considerable eort to the costume and accessories: the Queen’s upswept hair alone is adorned with seven large sapphires. Comparatively less focus has been placed on to her face, which is virtually without shadows, despite the small, ne lines in red marking the mouth and nose, and the thin, bluish-black lines representing veins. David with the head of Goliath, by Domenico Fetti (c.1588/89–1623). c.1618–20. Canvas, 160 by 99 cm. Purchased with the support of the Wiros Fund, 2014.

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