Neoclassical furniture design in Sweden

Magazine Antiques, April, 1994 by Gordon Alm

The Swedish architect Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz (1716--1796), the overseer of state building activities, sized up the country's artistic situation in 1776 in a memorandum to Gustav III.(1) He wrote that with the possible exception of Paris, no capital city had such skillful decorative sculptors as Stockholm, and that its rococo and early neoclassical interiors were among the finest in Europe. He proclaimed a new age of Swedish art under the "salla regering" (blissful governance) of King Gustav.

The burgeoning of the arts in Sweden was triggered by a disastrous fire in 1697 that destroyed the medieval castle of the Tre Kronor (Three Crowns), the royal residence in Stockholm. The architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger (1654--1728) was immediately commissioned to design a new palace, although it was not ready for occupancy by the royal family until 1754. Work on the interior and the furnishings began in 1732 under the direction of the Swedish architect Carl Harleman (1700--1753), who had studied in France and Italy between 1721 and 1727, spending most of the time in Paris, where his teachers included the sculptor and decorative painter Francois Antoine Vasse (1681--1736). Harleman was determined that the interiors of the palace should be up to Parisian standards, but as Sweden did not have enough suitable craftsmen, a force of French painters and sculptors was called in to do most of the work under Swedish direction. This proved to be a fruitful collaboration, resulting in a number of rococo interiors of internationally outstanding quality.

In 1735 the Kongl Ritarskademien (Royal Academy of Drawing), now the Kungl Akademien for de skona konsterna (Royal Academy of Fine Arts), was established in Stockholm, and some of the French artists working on the palace began to instruct talented Swedes. The palace project and the academy laid the foundation for a golden age of Swedish art in the eighteenth century. By the time Gustav III ascended the throne in 1771 the country's internationally respected artists included such portraitists as Gustaf Lundberg (1695--1786) and Alexandre Roslin (1718--1793).

The most promising Swedish artists and architects were sent on state scholarships to Paris and sometimes Italy after studying in Stockholm. The ornamental sculptor Jean Baptiste Masreliez is an example. His French father, Jacques Adrien Masreliez (1717--1806), also an ornamental sculptor, was recruited in 1748 to take charge of the large workshop producing decorative sculpture for the palace. When he was barely in his teens Jean Baptiste Masreliez entered the Royal Academy of Drawing, and at the age of seventeen he was sent to Paris to complete his training. Three years later he was summoned back to Stockholm to help his father, whom he succeeded in 1776 as principal ornamental sculptor to the king. It was this change of generation that prompted Adelcrantz to allude to a new age of Swedish art.

One of the first monumental neoclassical interiors in Sweden was Gustav III's state bedroom in the palace (see Pl. II), a project that involved the close co-operation of the king, the elderly architect Jean Eric Rehn, and the young Jean Baptiste Masreliez. The room was planned by Rehn, and a surviving sketch(2) shows much neoclassical restraint. By contrast the king and Masreliez were fully informed of the latest developments in Paris and took direct inspiration from the classicizing interiors of the French architect Jean Francois de Neufforge (d. 1791). The razor sharp detail of the tall pilasters closely echoes the French prototypes, as do the heavy contours of the looking-glass frame. The two monumental console tables with paired legs were designed and carved by Masreliez and are mentioned in a bill he dated 1777.(3) The tables have a richly carved frieze of oak and bay leaf garlands that flank a central lion mask. The trophy carved on the stretcher includes one of the coats of arms and the three crowns of Sweden, all resting on a bed of carved oak and bay leaves. The armorial shield is surrounded by antique helmets. Masreliez went on to make many tables of this kind for royal settings, although most are not quite so elaborate. He also produced console tables on a large scale for sale to commoners.

One of the most important pieces of Swedish neoclassical furniture is a writing table made by Georg Haupt in 1770 (Pl. IV), when the rococo style still prevailed in Stockholm. Haupt applied to the Stockholm Carpenters' Guild in 1770 for admission as a master after he had already been appointed court furniture maker, or Ebeniste du Roi, as he signed his work. The worthy masters of the guild must have been filled with wonder when they saw the drawing Haupt submitted for his masterpiece, the writing table that King Adolf Fredrik (1710--1771) had commissioned as a present for his Prussian consort, Queen Lovisa Ulrika (1720--1782). Because the traditional masterpiece in Sweden was a cabinet, Haupt's design for a writing table was a far cry from the norm. It was modeled on a writing table he had made for the duc de Choiseul in 1767 while he was studying in Paris, although the French table, made of solid mahogany, lacks the richly inlaid top cupboard. Access to the cupboard is gained by means of a roller door that slides into one side. The door is inlaid to resemble a table top on which are scattered attributes of the erudite queen. These include an ink horn and quill pen, a laurel wreath, an operatic aria, an excerpt from Act II of Moliere's Amphitryon, and books, one of which is open to Haupt's signature. At both ends of the cupboard are inlaid portraits of the queen, framed by elegant garlands.