The 2023 Portrait of Honour depicts the geneticist and Nobel laureate Svante Pääbo. Painted in oil on canvas by Sixten Sandra Österberg, the portrait joins the collection of the Swedish National Portrait Gallery and will be unveiled at Gripsholm Castle on 28 October.
The textile artist Lisa Juntunen Roos receives the 2023 Young Applied Artists award. In her works, she explores materiality, technique, narrative, and the strong role played by tradition.
A new edition of the Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm is now available. It is the first part of Volume 28, which contains scientific articles and information about the museum’s acquisitions in 2021. The publication is issued in digital format and is made available free of charge – both to read online and for downloading.
An 1851 silver tankard in the shape of a tree stump has been donated to the Nationalmuseum collection. It exemplifies the naturalistic style popular in the 19th century that drew inspiration and motifs from the natural world.
The year at Nationalmuseum begins with exhibitions about the Norwegian artist Harriet Backer and the Japanese designer Akira Minagawa. It then ends with a large exhibition about Romanticism with art both from the 19th century and contemporary art.
Wednesday 11 October it is time for the Tessin Lecture 2023. This year it is given by the renown Romanian-Spanish art historian Victor I. Stoichita. The lecture will focus on Italian School of Venice-artist Gentile Bellini’s paintings from his visit to Istanbul circa 1480, especially his portrait of Sultan Mehmet II.
The exhibition Just like in a mirror – portraits over five centuries presents men, women and children who lived in or served Sweden from the 16th century to the present day. Not all the subjects were born in the country, but they all contributed in various ways to its history or cultural life. Some of the artists and subjects have a connection with Jämtland.
Nationalmuseum has received three donations of mid-20th-century illustrative art. Comprising some 500 works in total by Birger Lundquist, Bertil Almqvist and Allan Löthman, and covering a range of subject matter, techniques and styles typical of Swedish illustrative art of the period, the donations constitute a valuable addition to the museum’s collection.
Nationalmuseum has acquired a portrait of Axel von Fersen at the age of 23, painted in London in the summer of 1778. The superb miniature by an unknown British artist depicts a self-assured young man, perhaps on account of his intended marriage to a rich heiress.
Nationalmuseum has received 25 silver artefacts, forming 11 works, generously donated by the artist Anna Atterling. All the pieces were made using the silversmithing technique developed by Atterling, which results in delicate forms with decorative cavities. Several of the pieces will be on display in The Joy of Giving exhibition opening on 5 July.
Nationalmuseum’s collections include many exquisite, representative examples of Swedish and European silver from the 16th century to the present day. This unique collection has come about partly as a result of many generous donations and financial contributions received over the years. The exhibition The Joy of Giving presents some 80 gifts received by the museum in recent decades.
Nationalmuseum has acquired a portrait of Cassiano dal Pozzo, a prominent patron of the arts in 17th-century Rome. The drawing in red chalk was made in the 1620s by an unknown artist. There was previously only one known portrait of dal Pozzo, made about a decade later.
