Pierre Signac i Hedvig Eleonoras tjänst

Abstract

Summary The miniature and enamel painter Pierre Signac, who was born and educated in France, spent the greater part of his life in Sweden. With Count Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie as intermediary he was employed as court miniature painter by Queen Christina in 1647. After the abdication of the Queen in 1654 he served Karl Gustav until the King's death in 1660, whereafter he remained court miniature painter to the Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora. Pierre Signac died in 1684. The Dowager Queen's accounts show that Signac was employ‐ed to execute portraits in miniature and enamel, designed to be mounted in lockets, rings, brooches, bracelets etc. Among the works still preserved which the artist painted for Hedvig Eleonora, some are of special interest. In St. Annen Museum in Lübeck there is a portrait of the Queen as widow. She is here pictured in a very individual and expressive way. It corresponds in certain respects with a portrait in whole figure of the Queen by Abraham Wuchters at Gripsholm. At Frede‐riksborg Castle in Denmark can be found a miniature of the same type by Signac. Of another type, and closely related to the dowager portrait by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl, is a small enamel portrait in grisaille. Of this there are several specimens. Another work by Signac, done for Hedvig Eleo‐nora, is a collection of miniature portraits in the National‐museum in Helsinki. The portraits were painted at different times and depict members of the Swedish and Danish Royal Houses as well as princes and princesses of several German courts. The German royalties were painted in 1665 while the artist travelled abroad. These miniatures, which together con‐stitute a genealogical table, were probably the Dowager Queen's wedding gift in 1680 to Karl XI and his bride, the Danish princess Ulrika Eleonora.