Portrait Exchange Between Stockholm and Vienna and the Formation of Gustav III’s Round Salon at Gripsholm Castle

Abstract

This article analyzes the origins of an important artistic commission in eighteenth-century Sweden, the so-called Round Salon (Runda Salongen) at Gripsholm Castle, a room decorated with portraits of the reigning monarchs of Europe (a galerie contemporaine) commissioned by King Gustav III in the mid 1770s. Based on documents newly uncovered in the National Archives of Sweden, this essay demonstrates that the room emerged out of concerns about Sweden’s place in the European political system during the difficult years after the bloodless revolution of 19 August 1772, which restored absolutism to Sweden. Central to Sweden’s negotiation of this era’s political landscape was Austria. A portrait by Lorens Pasch the Younger was sent to Empress Maria Theresa in late 1774 to establish support between Stockholm and Vienna. The documentary record reveals how this portrait began a dialogue and exchange between the two nations that sheds light on the Round Salon’s early history. It further reveals how monarchical portraits were intended to stimulate feelings of empathy and sentimentality for their recipients, proposes a firmer chronology for the room, and posits the importance of the Swedish statesman Ulrik Scheffer (1716–1799) to its genesis.