Nationalmuseum has received six unique pieces of jewellery designed by the Swedish silversmith Kerstin Öhlin Lejonklou. The pieces, in gold and oxidized silver set with brilliants, tanzanite, rubies and mandarin garnet, were designed between 1974 and 2007. They have been generously donated by the artist herself, who is closing her Östersund studio after 60 years.
Nationalmuseum has acquired its first sculpture by Camille Claudel, one of the most groundbreaking artists of the late 19th century. In her sculptures, Claudel explored her creativity and her lived experience, developing a highly personal style that broke with tradition. This prestigious acquisition symbolises the culmination of Nationalmuseum’s multiyear project focusing on female sculptors.
Beauty and the Unexpected features modern and contemporary American crafts selected by former gallerist and craft educator Helen W. Drutt English. The exhibition displays 81 objects including jewelry, chairs, ceramics, wall pieces and textiles from the 1950s until today.
On 23 March Nationalmuseum opens an exhibition about the Swedish miniature painter Peter Adolf Hall. He revolutionised the art of miniature portraits in Paris in the latter half of the 18th century and enjoyed great success. But how Hall came by his innovative miniature painting technique, and how he learned or developed this art form, remains a mystery.
Nationalmuseum has acquired a self-portrait by Lié-Louis Périn-Salbreux, a French miniaturist. The piece is one of the artist’s later works and, unlike many of his other self-portraits, is unusually modest and largely free from affectation.
On 17 February the exhibition Swedish Ecstasy opens at Bozar in Brussels, showcasing works by Swedish artists inspired by mysticism and spirituality. As partner in the project, Nationalmuseum is providing 40 works by Carl Fredrik Hill, Ernst Josephson and August Strindberg on loan.
Nationalmuseum has acquired three views of French gardens and parks painted in the latter half of the 18th century by Louis-Gabriel Moreau and Alexandre Dunouy. The park at Ermenonville features in two of the paintings, one of which shows the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau picking flowers.
The Garden – Six Centuries of Art and Nature takes the form of a grand tour showing how gardens have been portrayed in art. The exhibition includes more than 300 paintings, drawings, applied art and sculpture. Artists on display include Watteau, Boucher, Oudry, Le Nôtre, Monet and Carl Larsson and, from contemporary times, Peter Frie and Emma Helle.
The Wiurila Chair, designed by Bernadotte & Kylberg, has been donated to the Nationalmuseum collection. Created for a restaurant at Wiurila, a manor house at Halikko in southern Finland, the chair was donated by the Finnish design business Made by Choice.
The Young Scholars programme aims to offer recent graduates the chance to pursue short research projects at Nationalmuseum. Over the next year, the museum will facilitate at least two such projects thanks to external funding from the Beijer Foundation and the Ulf Gillberg–Lennart Agerberg Foundation.
Nationalmuseum has acquired a portrait of Marie-Gabrielle Capet, a French painter of pastels and miniatures. The portrait depicts the artist in the 1780s, when she was a close associate of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, one of the most celebrated portrait painters of the day, and her future husband François-André Vincent.
The 2022 Portrait of Honour depicts the artist Britta Marakatt-Labba, known around the world for her embroidered images of Sami landscapes with both a poetic and a political message. The portrait is the work of Marja Helander, whose photographs of Sami landscapes, people and culture have won multiple awards.
