Discover king, collector of Dutch and Flemish painting, art collector Gustav III (King of Sweden)

Qualifications: king, collector of Dutch and Flemish painting, art collector, director, author
Gustav III inherited part of the collection from his parents, Adolf Fredrik and Lovisa Ulrika, who owned many works by Dutch artists such as Rembrandt and Frans Hals. He expanded this collection with other Dutch works (Gerson 1942/1983). Gustav III bought works by, among others, Rembrandt, Ferdinand Bol, Gabriel Metsu, Pieter de Hooch, Thomas de Keyser, Salomon and Philips Koninck and Jan Victors at the auction of Eva Bielke's collection. After his death, the collection was exhibited in the Royal Museum, which was founded in 1792 and housed in the Stockholm Palace (Cavalli-Björkman 2005). According to an inventory made by Lucas von Breda, Gustav III owned 15 paintings by Rubens (Cavalli-Björkman 2010) In 1771 Gustav III founded the Academy for Music, in 1773 the Academy for Painting and Sculpture (SBL)

Nationality/school: Swedish

Born: Stockholm (city) 1746-01-24

Deceased: Stockholm (city) 1792-03-29
He was shot during a masked ball by disgruntled nobles. Although the shot was not leathal in it self, septicimia set in of which he died 15 days later (his assasination was later used by Giuseppe Verdi as the original plot for his opera 'La Forza del Destino')

Family relationships this field records any family relationship to one or more other artist(s).: Son of Adolf Fredrik, King of Sweden and Queen Lovisa Ulrika of Prussia. In 1775 married to Sofia Magdalena of Denmark, father of Gustav IV Adolf and Prince Carl Gustav, Duke of Småland; Gustav III was crowned in Stockholm on 29 May 1772

See also In this field, you will find references to names of groups or to the artists that made/make up groups. You may also come across references to other artists if there was/is question of collaboration without a joint name. This is the case, for instance, with artists who rendered parts of works by other artists (such as with P.P Rubens and J. Brueghel I).

This person/entity in other databases

25 hits in RKDimages as provenance
10 hits in RKDlibrary as subject

Suggested searches in RKDartists&

Biographical information

Active in

Parijs 1770 - 1771
Gripsholms Slott (Mariefred) 1782 - 1783
Italië 1783 - 1784
made a tour through Italy that had a major impact on him; from this trip derives the 'Gustaviansk stil' in interior furniture and decoration
Kopenhagen 1787
Finland 1789 - 1790

born in

active in

died in

Literature

Literature in RKDLibrary: 10 hits in RKDlibrary as subject

Witt Checklist 1978
Gerson 1942/1983 , p. 494
Stockholm 1969
Johnsson/Bjurström 1988 , p. 70
Turner et al. 1996 , vol. 14 (1996), p. 692 (as: Gustav III)
Cavalli-Björkman/Fryklund/Sidén 2005
Cavalli-Björkman et al. 2010 , Introduction
Kisluk-Grosheide/Rondot 2018 , p. 278-287

Documentation RKD

This field specifies the location of the various RKD documentation materials. Most of the locations refer to our art-historical image documentation. In addition, you will find references to press documentation (clippings and short articles) here.

Project: Gerson Digital : Sweden

External links: this person in Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon

Permalink: https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/34720

Creation date: 1991-12-15; Last modified date: 2023-09-19

Explore

Gustav III (King of Sweden)

Comments

My selections