Nationalmuseum has acquired a selection of photographic portraits by Kerstin Bernhard for the Swedish National Portrait Gallery. The portraits have been donated by Carl Johan Bernhard, the photographer’s nephew and assistant. One of the most prominent Swedish photographers of the 20th century, Kerstin Bernhard would have been 100 years old this year.
Nationalmuseum has acquired a previously unknown portrait of Johan Tobias Sergel drawn in 1774 by his French colleague and friend François-André Vincent. The pen-and-wash drawing is an unusually vivid image of the Swedish sculptor in the artistic environment of Rome. Despite its style, Vincent’s portrait is not a caricature but rather a snapshot captured by a friend and fellow artist.
Following the success of the Peredvizhniki exhibition, Nationalmuseum is featuring Russian art in a wider perspective this autumn. From Tsars to Commissars will be an exhibition of works by artists who came before and after the Peredvizhniki. Co-produced with the Russian Museum in St Petersburg, the exhibition will include Russian and Soviet art from the 19th century through to 1960.
Nationalmuseum’s Hans Gedda exhibition is going on tour and will be on show this summer at Dunkers kulturhus in Helsingborg. The exhibition opens on 14 June and runs until 28 September. The 150 artworks on display include several newly added photographs and drawings.
On 14 June, the Crossing Borders exhibition opens at Gripsholm Castle, featuring portraits of Swedes who have pursued their career or made their name outside of Sweden. The exhibition is also on show at Stockholm Arlanda Airport during the spring and summer. A new addition to the exhibits at Gripsholm will be Sanna Sjöswärd’s recent portrait of Carl Bildt.
Nationalmuseum has acquired a view of Rome with the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in the foreground, painted in 1836 by Constantin Hansen. In recent decades, oil sketches featuring Italian motifs have been increasingly sought after by museums and private collectors alike. Nationalmuseum is therefore especially pleased to have acquired Hansen’s splendid little Roman scene.
The recent acquisition of a Bruno Liljefors painting has enabled Nationalmuseum to recreate one of the artist’s most ambitious works. Cat in a Summer Meadow was composed alongside Nestlings of Red-Backed Shrike, already in the museum’s collection. Now, the two paintings are on display in a single frame in the exhibition Highlights, as the artist originally intended.
In a project about self image and identity, Nationalmuseum has been studying the popular social media phenomena selfies, by comparing them with portraits in the museum’s collections. The result is on show in the exhibition Highlights until 31 August.
Gripsholm Castle reopens on Thursday 15 May and will be open daily from 10am to 4pm until 30 September. Guided tours of the castle in Swedish and English will be available daily. From 14 June visitors can enjoy Music at Gripsholm, a series of concerts.
Through a bequest in the will of the late Mrs Peggy Bonnier, Georges Seurat’s study of a pair of legs for the painting Bathers at Asnières (1884) has been donated to Nationalmuseum. The work exemplifies Seurat’s technique of drawing on heavily grained paper with Conté crayons.
From 10 May Slow Art will be on show at the Swedish Institute in Paris. The exhibition puts time and production processes in perspective. An international audience will now have the chance to meet Swedish artisans. The exhibition is produced by Nationalmuseum in Stockholm where it was on show in 2012.
Nationalmuseum has acquired a suite of furniture made in the 1830s and once used in the official residence of the Swedish foreign minister. Fully gilded, and upholstered in French silk, the suite is unusually luxurious by Swedish standards. The closest parallel is the suite that furnishes the Lantern Room at Rosendal Palace.
