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We are dealing here with two important pastel portraits of both younger brothers of King Gustav III of Sweden
- 18-year-old Karl, Prince of Sweden, Duke of Soendemanland and his
16-year-old brother, Fredrik Adolf, Prince of Sweden, Duke of
Oestergoetland. Each of them is depicted in armour and with Commander
Cross of Maltese (St. John) Order.
The sitter of the portrait on
the right, Prince Karl, was born on 7 October 1748 in Stockholm as son
of King Adolf Fredrik (see our web #36117) and Queen Louisa Ulrika. In Autumn of 1779 he became the Swedish
Masonic Leader (National Grand Master). By two major ritual revisions in
1780 and 1800 he created a logical masonic system with ten degrees. His
full masonic title was "Sovereign Grand Commander of 7th Province" and
he was also the head of all European lodges within the Chapter degrees
(the aristocratic, higher degrees of Freemasonry that claimed to be
descended from the old order of Templar Knights). In this function he
controlled also all lodges in North Europe including the Russian
Masonry.
In late 1779 the Great National Lodge of Swedish System was
inaugurated in St.Petersburg and submitted to the "Province Grand
Master" (to Duke Karl of Soendermanland). This caused great
unsatisfaction to Empress Catharina II, because several aristocrats and
members of the government were members of this Lodge. In St.Petersburger
newspaper "Wedomosti" there was an article about this inauguration:
"the consequences were grave, since Her Majesty (Catharina II) finds
obnoxious that her subjects have such a close relation to a prince of
Swedish origin." In this period the important Russian freemansons were:
the Curator of the Moscow University M.M. Kheraskov, Prince A.A.
Cherkaski, I.P. Turgenev, Prince Yengalichev, A.M. Kutuzov, P.A.
Tatishchev, Prince Trubetskoi, N.L. Novikov and J.G. Schwartz.
After the assassination in 1792 of his brother King Gustav III, Duke
of Söndemanland became regent for his nephew Gustav IV. He introduced
some liberal policies, but these were again abandoned after the end of
his regency in 1796. Called to the throne at the forced abdication of
his nephew in 1809, Karl accepted a new constitution that limited the
monarch's power, and he signed treaties with Denmark and France as well
as a treaty ceding Finnland to Russia. In 1810 he adopted the French
Marshal Bernadotte (later King Karl XIV) as his heir, and leaving all
affairs in his hands thereafter. He died in 1818.
Our images show two other portraits of the Duke.
Concerning the authorship of this work:
For
a long time we believed that we were dealing here with a work of
Swedish Court portraitist (working chiefly in pastel technique) Gustaf
Lundberg (1695-1786). In 2006, in newly-published "Dictionary of
pastellists before 1800" by Neil Jeffares, in the article about famous
Swedish artist Peter Adolf Hall (mainly portrait miniaturist, he was
also known as author of pastel portraits) we found our painting
described (and illustrated) by Neil Jeffares as a work of this artist
(see our image nr.8 with corresponding clips). Mr. Jeffares is referring
to Grove's "Dictionary of Art" (1996).
Obviously, Grove had used
the same information sources as the author of the recently published
Exhibition Catalogue "Pierre Adolphe Hall" (Paris 2000/Regine De Plinval
de Guillebon). Our image nr.9 shows clips from this catalogue.
There is a mention of Hall's receiving in May of 1766 600 talers for
the execution of pastel (sic!) portraits of "duc de Sudermanie, future
roi Charles XIII" and of his brother "le duc d'Ostrogothie" (see our
image from abovementioned catalogue showing Hall's receipt of this
transaction).
Ten years after acquisition of
aforenamed portrait we suddenly discovered in sale catalogue of one of
German provincial auction houses (and consequently bought) the
counterpart to this portrait - also mentioned in P. A. Hall's receipt
portrait of Karl's brother, "duc d'Ostrogothie" (see again our images). Twice erroneously offered at auction sales (the first one took
place still in 2004) as portrait of King Stanislaw Leszczynski of
Poland (absolute nonsence -
for known portraits of latter) it was nevertheless recognized by Neil
Jeffares and included by him into his catalogue of Hall's pastels (see
our image).
The sitter of the portrait on the left see
again our (image nr.1), Prince Fredrik Adolf, Duke of Oestergoetland was
born on 18 July 1750 in Drottingholm. He was the youngest of three sons
of King Adolf Fredrik of Sweden. As a child he has a weak health and a
firce temperament. His education became somewhat lacking.
He was made
colonel in 1762, major-general in 1768, lieutenant-general in 1774,
Commander of the Vaestmanland Regiment in 1775 and field marshal in
1792. He was given a minor role in the Revolution of 1772 of his older
brother Gustav, who gave him the task of agitation in provinces
Soendemanland and Oestergoetland.
Fredrik Adolf served in the
Russo-Swedish War in Finnland, in 1788. During the Battle of Hogland, he
wished to send reinforcements by fleet to aid his brother Karl (sitter
of our first portrait). This was prevented, and Fredrik left the army in
protest to Gustav III, whom he reffered to as a tyrant. He thereby came
to belong to the opposition, and he also became involved in the planned
coup by his sister-in-law (Karl's wife) to despose the monarch.
However the hesitancy of Karl effectively discontinued this coup.
In
July 1793, Fredrik Adolf was given the position to chair the government
during the journey of his 5-year-old nephew (and now King Gustav IV
Adolf - see our web #34943) and the regent in the southern provinces, but nothing whatsoever was
apparently accomplished during his tenure, and during similiar journey
of king in 1794, he was not entrusted again.
In 1800 Fredrik Adolf
left Sweden for health reasons and travelled to Germany and then to
France. He died on 12 December 1803 in French town Montpellier. He was
never married.
Pierre-Adolphe (really Peter Adolf) Hall was born in 1739 in Boras , Sweden and died in 1793 in Liege.
After studying medicine in Uppsala and Greifswald, he went on in
1756 to study painting in Berlin, and in 1758 in Hamburg under K.F. W.
Richard, then, between 1760 and 1766 in Stockholm, in the studio of the
sculptor P.L'Archveque and of the painter in pastels, G. Lundberg.
In 1766 he received an order from the Court of Sweden to paint a
portrait of the King Gustav III. Afterward, he want to Paris where,
favoured by Roslin, he became an associate of the Academy in 1769 and
official painter to the King for the miniatures he exhibited at the
Salon in that year.
His Studio, in the Rue Neuve-des-Bons-enfants, was an artistic
center frequented by Hubert Robert, Greuze, Mme Vigee Lebrun, etc.
The year 1784, however, set a difficult period in motion, and Hall went
on to loose all of his capital between 1789 and 1793. Far from his
family, he wandered during the last period from Aix to Brussels, Spaa,
Maastricht and Liege.
Schidlof writes, "although Hall was Swedish by origin, he is
considered as the greatest (!) French miniaturist of the second half of
the 18th century".
Many of Hall's miniatures are in Louvre, the Wallace Collection
(London), the National Museum of Stockholm, and other prominent
international museums.
Creation Year: 1766
Measurements: UNFRAMED: 52.0 cm x 42.0 cm / 20.5" x 16.5" inches
FRAMED: 64.0 cm x 53.3 cm / 25.2" x 21.0" inches
Object Type: Framed pastel painting
Style: Old Masters Paintings
Technique: pastel on paper laid on canvas
Inscription: -
Creator: Peter Adolf (Pierre Adolphe) Hall
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