Roslin’s Self-Portrait with his Wife Marie Suzanne Giroust Painting a Portrait of Henrik Wilhelm Peill Magnus Olausson Director of Collections and the Swedish National Portrait Gallery 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. ~ÅèìáëáíáçåëLêçëäáå ïáíÜ Üáë ïáÑÉ ã~êáÉ ëìò~ååÉ Öáêçìëí Roslin’s Self-Portrait with his Wife Marie Suzanne Giroust Painting a Portrait of Henrik Wilhelm Peill Magnus Olausson Director of Collections and the Swedish National Portrait Gallery tÜÉå cêÉÇêáâ pé~êêÉ left Paris in the summer of NTRQ , Alexander Roslin (NTNU Ó NTVP ) had to take over various pur - chasing commissions entrusted to the young diplomat by his uncle, Count Carl Gustaf Tessin. These related to both a vari - ety of luxury items and works of art, but above all to books. Payments were often made via the Grill trading house, which had numerous contacts in banking. Roslin admittedly found these recurring assign - ments tiresome, but for the sake of his ca - reer he needed powerful patrons. When Tessin’s protégé Henrik Wilhelm Peill ar - rived in Paris in the mid NTSM s, Roslin and his wife received him with open arms. Peill, whose mother was a member of the Mijtens family of artists, was on an educa - tional tour of Europe, in preparation for a future position with the firm of his cousin’s husband Carlos Grill. As an outward sign of the close friend - ship that developed between them, the artist painted this portrait of himself and his wife Marie Suzanne Giroust ( NTPQ Ó Fig. N Alexander Roslin ( NTNU ÓNTVP ), The Artist and his Wife Marie Suzanne Giroust Portraying Henrik Wilhelm Peill, NTST . Oil on canvas, NPN ñ VUKR cm. Donated by the Friends of the Nationalmuseum, Sophia Giesecke Fund, Axel Hirsch Fund and Mr Stefan Persson and Mrs Denise Persson. Nationalmuseum, åã TNQNK NT Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume OM OMNP ~ÅèìáëáíáçåëLêçëäáå ïáíÜ Üáë ïáÑÉ ã~êáÉ ëìò~ååÉ Öáêçìëí of the Swedish East India Company, Claes Suzanne Giroust, has the same historical Grill the Elder, who had died in NTST . origins as the work the Museum has now ac - Most of the indications are that the quired with the support of the Axel Hirsch younger woman portrayed on the gold box Fund and the Sophie Giesecke Fund. The is Miss Grill, while the older woman is pre - purchase of the Roslin family portrait sumably her mother, the elder Anna would not have been possible, either, with - Johanna, Peill’s cousin and future mother- out a very substantial contribution from the in-law. Friends of the Nationalmuseum and Mr Against this backdrop, it is easy to un - Stefan Persson and Mrs Denise Persson. It derstand why Roslin felt called upon to is gratifying to note that an important part paint the Grill Family Portrait (Fig. O) before of Sweden’s cultural heritage has now been he left Sweden in September NTTR . This saved and will in future be able to be shown picture of the widowed elder Anna Johan - as part of the permanent collections of the na Grill and her children Adolf Ulric and Museum. the younger Anna Johanna (married to Peill) readily tied in with the group por - trait of the Roslins now acquired by the Na - tionalmuseum. It did not include the son- in-law Peill, however, but another individ - ual, the deceased paterfamilias Claes Grill the Elder. As convention demanded, he is Fig. O Alexander Roslin ( NTNU ÓNTVP ), Grill Family Portrait, NTTR . represented in a different degree of reality, Oil on canvas, NPN ñ NMM cm. in the form of Gustaf Lundberg’s well- The Gothenburg Museum of Art, Öâã NMOTK known pastel portrait. The inscription, Unis à jamais (“United for ever”), closely echoes that of the companion painting, Loin et près , opening up a multiplicity of NTTO ) at her easel, working on a pastel of meanings. In the Österby Collection, Peill (Fig. N). The painting came into be - moreover, these two works joined an older ing in NTST , as Peill’s stay in the French family portrait painted by Martin van capital was drawing to a close. The portrait Meytens the Younger during his stay in within the portrait has not been found, Stockholm forty years earlier, showing the though there are several extant copies of elder Anna Johanna as a girl, with her par - another version, made by Giroust a year ents Carlos Grill and his wife Hendriana, earlier. The gold box with portrait minia - née Mijtens, who was also Henrik Wilhelm tures which Roslin is pointing to adds to Peill’s maternal aunt. the rebus-like character of the picture, and The Roslin family portrait was the last may possibly have been a lavish farewell gift painting in this trilogy still in private hands. from Peill. That the portrait really was a to - For a long time it belonged to the descen - ken of friendship is made clear by the in - dants of the man who was the heir of Hen - scription on the frame – Loin et près (“Far rik Wilhelm Peill and his wife, the younger away and [yet] close”). The motto of Anna Johanna Grill, namely her nephew, course takes on a somewhat comical note, the ironmaster Baron Per Adolf Tamm. given that the couple’s friend is always pre - This unique work by Alexander Roslin sent in the form of the portrait on the from the Österby Collection eventually easel. Peill most probably acquired the passed to Baroness Stina Nordenfalk, née painting at the time or in the years imme - Rålamb, whose heirs have now sold the por - diately following. Quite soon after his re - trait to the Nationalmuseum. Roslin’s per - turn home he married the younger Anna haps best-known painting, The Lady with the Johanna Grill, daughter of the late director Veil , another portrait of his wife Marie Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume OM OMNP NU.