Nationalmuseum has acquired a work by Domenico Fetti, one of the truly important Italian Baroque painters. The painting comes from a Swedisg collection and has not been shown to the public since 1963. Several details strongly suggest that this was the first of the two known closely related versions of this composition, something that upcoming art technological studies will tell.
Saturday 15 November will see the unveiling of the 2014 Portrait of Honour at Gripsholm Castle. This year, choreographer and director Mats Ek has been captured by photographer Lesley Leslie-Spinks. Mats Ek is renowned for his new interpretations of ballet classics, most recently in the acclaimed Juliet and Romeo.
Nationalmuseum Design is opening up in Kulturhuset in Stockholm on 6 February. The first exhibition is a collaboration with the podcast Summit and contains highly personal and subjective selections. In Subjectivities – selected design the designers and the museum choose objects from each other.
Nationalmuseum has made a major loan of 17th-century Dutch paintings to an exhibition at Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The exhibition opens on 31 October and surveys one of the golden ages of European culture. The loan comprises some 30 works form the museum’s prominent collection, among them The Kitchen Maid by Rembrandt.
Nationalmuseum has made a major loan of works to the Alexander Roslin exhibition at Rijksmuseum Twenthe in the Netherlands, which opens on 18 October. The loan comprises 16 well-known portraits, including The Lady with the Veil, Zoie Ghika and John Jennings Esq., his Brother and Sister-in-Law. This is the first-ever exhibition in the Netherlands devoted to Alexander Roslin and his works.
Nationalmuseum has acquired a French tapestry from the18th century depicting an allegory of the month of October. It was originally one of a twelve-piece series presented to Eric Sparre on his departure as ambassador in France in 1717. The acquisition means that two of the original twelve tapestries are now back in Sweden.
Nationalmuseum has added an exciting piece by Czech ceramicist Ivan Jelinek to its collection of contemporary applied art. The new acquisition is a large ceramic teapot inspired by the Mad Hatter’s tea party in Alice in Wonderland. With its curvaceous lines and highly imaginative design, the piece is typical of the artist’s distinctive work.
Nationalmuseum has launched its first digital journal, which is available online to download and read free of charge. The Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm contains academic articles on art history relating to Nationalmuseum’s collections. The journal is moving to digital-only format and will be available through the DiVA portal and the museum’s own website.
Nationalmuseum has made a major loan of works to the Pehr Hilleström exhibition at the Sinebrychoff Art Museum in Helsinki. The loan comprises some 20 works by this artist best known for his documentary paintings of 18th-century Stockholm. The exhibition opens on 4 September and runs until 11 January.
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.
