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Dutch Drawings in Swedish Public Collections has 322 pages and includes 600 drawings.
Dutch Drawings in Swedish Public Collections has 322 pages and includes 600 drawings.

Press release -

Nationalmuseum publishes a catalogue of drawings by the Dutch masters

Dutch Drawings in Swedish Public Collections

Nationalmuseum houses Sweden's largest collection of drawings by the Dutch masters. The collection includes important works by Rembrandt and his pupils, as well as drawings by Abraham Bloemaert, Jan van Goyen, Herman Saftleven, Willem van de Velde, and many others. This richly illustrated catalogue of Dutch master drawings in Swedish public collections, now published, is the result of extensive research work.

The 600 drawings in the catalogue include approximately 530 from the collection of Nationalmuseum. The remaining 70 works are housed at the Gothenburg Museum of Art, the National Library of Sweden, the Swedish National Archives, and other institutions. The vast majority of these small-scale masterpieces date from the 1600s. 130 of the drawings have never been published before.

The author of the catalogue is Börje Magnusson, a former curator at Nationalmuseum and an expert on older draughtsmanship. Each drawing is accompanied by text that describes the materials and artistic techniques employed in its creation, as well as other information related to the physical nature of the work of art. The motifs of the drawing, what previous scholars have said about it, the artwork’s previous owners, and (of course) its creator are also presented.

Without a doubt, the largest and most high-profile group of drawings is made up of the more than hundred sheets belonging to the School of Rembrandt, and which can be traced back to the generation after the Dutch master's death. Like most of the collections, these works of art arrived in Sweden in the 18th century. Although Sweden and the Netherlands shared many close commercial and artistic ties during the 1600s, few drawings illustrate this relationship. In the 17th century, National Admiral Wrangel commissioned sketches of a collection of tapestries depicting naval battles (now housed at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts), and Chief Royal Engineer Erik Dahlbergh hired two Dutchmen – Willem Swidde and Johannes van den Aveelen – to illustrate his books. In the latter case, the National Library of Sweden possesses the majority of the surviving works by these two artists.

“In parallel with the publication of the book, we have uploaded the drawings and information about the works to our internet database (nationalmuseum.se), where you can see the pictures in high resolution. When this material becomes available to researchers and museum officials all over the world, many new discoveries may be made, and that’s an exciting prospect. When Nationalmuseum reopens in October, we will also be exhibiting a selection of Rembrandt's drawings,” says Martin Olin, Head of Research and Loans at Nationalmuseum and one of the editors of the book.

The catalogue is being published in collaboration with the German publisher Hatje Cantz.

The research behind the book was funded by the Getty Foundation. The printing of the catalogue is made possible through generous contributions from the King Gustaf VI Adolf Fund for Swedish Culture; the Magnus Bergvall Foundation; the Lars Hierta Memorial Foundation; the Royal Patriotic Society; the Ulla and Gunnar Trygg Nationalmuseum endowment; the Berit Wallenberg Foundation and the Åke Wiberg Foundation.

Facts

Editors: Ludvig Florén and Martin Olin

Graphic design: Hans Cogne

Translation and text processing: Martin Naylor

Price: 545 SEK from Nationalmuseum’s online bookshop

Number of pages: approx. 322 pp, richly illustrated in full colour

Binding: Hardcover (buckram)

Language: English

ISBN: 978-91-7100-874-9 (Nationalmuseum) 978-3-7757-4325-9 (Hatje Cantz)

More information

Martin Olin, Head of Research and Loans, martin.olin@nationalmuseum.se, +46 8 519 543 10.

Mattias Robertson, Pressofficer, press@nationalmuseum.se, +46 767 23 46 32.

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Nationalmuseum is Sweden’s museum of art and design. The collections comprise older paintings, sculpture, drawings and graphic art, and applied art and design up to the present day. The museum building is currently under renovation and scheduled to open again October 13, 2018. In the meantime, the museum will continue its activities through collaborations both in Sweden and abroad. Nationalmuseum has partnerships with Svenska Dagbladet and the Grand Hôtel Stockholm.

Contacts

Head of Press

Head of Press

Press contact Hanna Tottmar +46 (0)8 5195 4400

Welcome to Nationalmuseum Sweden!

Nationalmuseum is Sweden’s museum of art and design. The collections include paintings, sculpture, drawings and graphic art from the 16th century up to the beginning of the 20th century and the collection of applied art and design up to the present day. The total amount of objects is around 700,000. .

The emphasis of the collection of paintings is on Swedish 18th and 19th century painting. Dutch painting from the 17th century is also well represented, and the French 18th century collection is regarded as one of the best in the world. The works are made by artists such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya, Boucher, Watteau, Renoir and Degas as well as Swedish artists such as Anders Zorn, Carl Larsson, Ernst Josephson and Carl Fredrik Hill.

The collection of applied art and design consists of objects such as ceramics, textiles, glass and precious and non-precious metals as well as furniture and books etc. The collection of prints and drawings comprises works by Rembrandt, Watteau, Manet, Sergel, Carl Larsson, Carl Fredrik Hill and Ernst Josephson. Central are the 2,000 master drawings that Carl Gustaf Tessin acquired during his tour of duty as Sweden's ambassador to France in the 18th century.

Art and objects from Nationalmuseum’s collections can also be seen at several royal palaces such as Gripsholm, Drottningholm, Strömsholm, Rosersberg and Ulriksdal as well as in the Swedish Institute in Paris. The museum administers the Swedish National Portrait Gallery at Gripsholm Castle, the world’s oldest national portrait gallery and the Gustavsberg collection with approximately 45,000 objects manufactured at the Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory. Nationalmuseum also curates exhibitions at Nationalmuseum Jamtli and the Gustavsberg Porcelain Museum.

Nationalmuseum is a government authority with a mandate to preserve cultural heritage and promote art, interest in art and knowledge of art and that falls within the remit of the Swedish Ministry of Culture.