Drottningholm Palace, Stockholm

LadyFinn · Mar 22, 2020

A jigsaw puzzle of Drottningholm Palace.
https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=107f5f95f68e

A jigsaw puzzle of Drottningholm Palace Theatre.
https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=1b7313bf9081

Drottningholm Palace Thetre has its own shop located in an 18th century building located next to the theatre. Souvenirs and gifts of all prices and for all ages, everything with a strong connection to the theatre and its surroundings.
https://scontent-hel2-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=6fb498d4117ba9a6e74b568ae9d96aad&oe=5E9E7DF3
https://scontent-hel2-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=a9a3045652e9071b9d584cb9b4bd0edc&oe=5E9D2DB1
https://scontent-hel2-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=3faa2ef7ba2618ac9aaac2357a6fcc0a&oe=5E9E37A0

A jigsaw puzzle of the Chinese Pavilion.
https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=018ee34c085f

LadyFinn · May 27, 2020

LadyFinn · Jun 14, 2020

Photos of the Chinese Pavilion, taken on 5th June by photographer Claudio Bresciani.
https://1.t.cdn.belga.be/belgaimage:165054630:1800x650:w?v=5ee3688d&m=cdaodaka
https://3.t.cdn.belga.be/belgaimage:165054665:1800x650:w?v=5ee3688d&m=eojfmfei
https://0.t.cdn.belga.be/belgaimage:165054635:1800x650:w?v=5ee3688d&m=jlpbnfjk
https://2.t.cdn.belga.be/belgaimage:165054633:1800x650:w?v=5ee3688d&m=oambgobe
https://1.t.cdn.belga.be/belgaimage:165054641:1800x650:w?v=5ee3688d&m=hdbjhepn
https://0.t.cdn.belga.be/belgaimage:165054679:1800x650:w?v=5ee3688d&m=pkmeajec
https://0.t.cdn.belga.be/belgaimage:165054675:1800x650:w?v=5ee3688d&m=fpfbnnea

LadyFinn · Jun 20, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, a photographer and antique dealer and expert.

Drottningholm Palace on the Lovö Island inland from Stockholm was built by the Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora of Sweden (1636-1715). The Baroque palace is the grandest of the royal country palaces in Sweden and where the present King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia resides.
The eighteen year old Princess Hedvig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp had married King Carl X Gustaf in 1654, but he died in 1660 when their only son succeeded as Carl XI only five years old. His mother became head of a regency until 1672.
Hedvig Eleonora bought Drottningholm in 1661, but the house built in 1580 for Queen Catharina Jagellonica, burnt down 30 December the same year.
The Queen commissioned the architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder to build her a new palace in 1662. It was almost finished in 1681 when he died and his son Nicodemus the Younger took over and completed the elaborate interiors.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBQxQgCJm0b/
The garden façade of the Drottningholm Palace. The Baroque summer palace was built by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and his son Nicodemus the Younger for the Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBRN--ApemH/
The best way to travel to Drottningholm Palace is by boat. This was the only way to the Lovö Island before Gustaf III had a permanent bridge built in the 1780s.
There are wonderful boats, over 100 years old with a restaurant onboard, leaving from the Stockholm Town Hall every hour during the summer.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBbSW6ipN9u/
The Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora of Sweden (1636-1715) allegorical painting by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl (1628-98). She is portrayed holding a portrait of her young son Carl XI, whom she was the regent for during his minority.
She was born a Princess of Holstein-Gottorp and she married Carl X Gustaf in 1655 and their only son was born a year later. He died in 1660 leaving her a 24 year old widow. Hedvig Eleonora loved building and decorating and she could afford it as she had been given the income of several large estates for life. Drottningholm Palace was her largest project.
The portrait of Carl X Gustaf as Hereditary Prince was painted in 1652 by the French artist Sébastien Bourdon (1616-71). The king had succeeded his cousin Queen Christina after her abdication in 1654
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBXw4pqpmot/
Count Carl Gyllenstierna (1649-1723), the Governor over Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s estates. He had been appointed a chamberlain of the Queen’s when he was only 19 years old in 1668. She was 32 and they became very close, and we can only speculate about the nature of their relationship. Gyllenstierna, who came from a prominent aristocratic family, had his own luxuriously decorated apartment at Drottningholm. The Queen also commissioned her architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger to build him the small, but beautiful country house Steninge, which she paid for and she had a pavilion there for her private use.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBX4FqkJtlp/
The main entrance to Drottningholm Palace is facing the Lake Mälaren.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBbTAGQJHj-/
The open Italian style loggia at Drottningholm with the main entrance to the right leading in the the Grand ceremonial staircase.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBbTvS8pOUQ/
The first thing a visitor sees when entering Drottningholm Palace is the magnificent coat of of arms of Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s (left) joined with that of her late husband’s Carl X Gustaf (right). She was born a Princess of Holstein-Gottorp and he was a Count Palatine (Pfalzgraf), before succeeding his cousin Queen Christina.
The outstanding stucco work in the grand staircase, designed by Nicodemus Tessin Elder, was done by the Italian Carle Carove.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBbVFfLJ2sg/
The grand central staircase designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder was decorated with paintings by Johan Sylvius (who had previously worked at Windsor Castle). The marble sculptures by Nicolaes Millich, from Antwerp, depicts Apollo, Minerva and the nine Muses.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBbXBeXJKg5/
The Lower North Guards Room (Drabantsal) at Drottningholm Palace. There were guards stationed in here 24 hours a day. The walls are since the early 18th century covered with gilt tooled leather made in Venice, the last remnants of a large set depicting the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683. They belonged to Queen Hedvig Eleonora and they covered the walls in two rooms, but it is unknown how they came to Sweden. The large walnut cupboard is German.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBc2U1KpywC/
This famous painting by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl (1629-98) depicts a dromedary camel with his Turkish guard. They had both been captured in a battle in Hungary in 1687 by the Swedish General, Count Nils Bielke, and presented to King Carl XI the following year. The guard, called Schabbasch, was baptised in the presence of the king, given the name ‘Nils’, and employed in the royal stables. It is believed he remained in Sweden for the rest of his life.
This very large painting from 1689-90 has hung in the Lower North Guards Room since 1709. It originally hung in Carl XI’s Bedroom here at Drottningholm.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBc4qUXJZQn/
A portrait of the General Baron Johan Siöblad (1644-1710), from a series of Carl XI’s military commanders painted by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl. The German born David Klöcker came to Sweden in 1652 and became Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s court painter in 1661. He painted many portraits of the royal family, but also of their horses, dogs, other pets as well as a variety of wild animals. He became Sweden’s first proper animal painter thanks to the many commissions from the royal family, but he much preferred to paint portraits and allegories glorifying the royals.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBc7BZXJq3S/

LadyFinn · Jun 24, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, a photographer and antique dealer and expert.

The Upper half of the walls in the Lower North Guards Room at Drottningholm Palace are since the early 18th century covered with gilt tooled leather made in Venice. The leather panels are the last remnants of a large set depicting the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683. They originally covered the walls in two rooms.
The bolection chimney piece is original to the room as is typical for the Baroque period in Sweden.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBdiOYips0A/
The ceiling in the Lower North Guards Room has a ceiling painted in trompe l’œil imitation a Baroque stucco ceiling.
This kind of painted ceiling is found in many country houses in Sweden with interiors from the 17th century. To have stucco ceilings was very expensive, so this was an attractive alternative, and a lot cheaper!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBdiwvnpbFv/
Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s State Bedroom was the most important room at at Drottningholm Palace. It was therefore the most lavishly decorated. Work with this Baroque interior began in 1668 after Nicodemus Tessin the Elder’s design. It was originally painted black and very richly gilded.
It has earlier been believed that the colour black was chosen as the State Bedroom was meant to be a room of morning for the Queen’s late husband, but black was a fashionable colour at this time, and black and gold was also the heraldic colour of the Counts Palatine, her husband’s dynasty. Their coat of arms had a golden lion against a black background.
The room was painted blue in 1701 at the Queen’s request, which is now thought was because of her grandson Carl XII and his army’s victory against the Russians at Narva 30 November 1700. Blue and yellow are the national colours of Sweden. Alternatively, she may have just have tired of the sombre black and wanted a more cheerful colour. Hedvig Eleonora never had a bed in here, and she only used the room for the most important ceremonies.
Queen Lovisa Ulrica, who resided at Drottningholm 1744-77, had the present bed and textiles installed as she used it as her bedroom.
Tessin used the best craftsmen for the creation of this room, the painter Ehrenstrahl produced some of his finest work here, Burchard Precht carved all the woodwork, the exceptional floor was laid by Lucas Meylandt using rare and exotic woods, and the engraver Breuer made the gilded copper roundels placed above the doors and on the ceiling.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBkb_GUpnby/
This grand bed, which retain the original silk brocade woven in Stockholm, was made for Queen Lovisa Ulrica in the 1740s for the State Bedroom at Drottningholm Palace. She used this as her regular bedroom until 1777, when she was forced to sell the palace to her son Gustaf III.
Gustaf didn’t sleep in here, but kept his mother’s bed and used the room for his court ceremonies. He placed the pair of torchères by Burchard Precht in here.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBkiJ6OJf6p/
In the centre of the elaborately decorated ceiling in the State Bedroom is a painting by Ehrenstrahl of the marriage of Carl X Gustaf and Queen Hedvig Eleonora when their hands meet under the Eye of Providence (the all seeing-eye of God).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBkl85Xp3-2/
‘The Immortality of Youth’ (Juventus) by Ehrenstrahl, relates to Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s son, Carl XI.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBknRuyJGoI/
The third of Ehrenstrahl’s paintings in the State Bedroom depicts Lachesis measuring the Thread of Life for Carl XI, Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s only son.
The Three Fates in Greek mythology was Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, who spin, draw out and cut the thread of life, determining destiny and how much time of life was allowed for each person. Sadly, Carl XI’s life-thread was cut short, as he died from cancer in 1697, only 41 years old.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBksE7vpwLX/
One of the four over-doors with one of eight gilt copper medallions by the German engraver J G Breuer.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBkssqWJF19/
A watercolour dated 1829 by Gustaf Söderberg (1799-1875) of Crown Princess Josephine of Sweden seated in Hedvig Eleonora’s State Bedroom at Drottningholm with her three oldest children, Carl (XV), Gustaf and Oscar (II). Joséphine used this as her bedroom when she and her husband Crown Prince, later King Oscar I, stayed at Drottningholm. The decor was unchanged since the 1680s, and she slept in Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s bed from the 1740s. Behind her is one of the Savonnerie folding screens that had been sent as gifts from Louis XV of France to Queen Lovisa Ulrica.
The artist Gustaf Söderberg was a drawing teacher to Crown Prince Oscar as well an officer. He had a successful military career, which gave him less time to paint and draw, and he became an adjutant of the Crown Prince’s as well as a colonel in the army.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBl5AJxpcXp/

LadyFinn · Jun 26, 2020

At Youtube of The Royal Palaces
The Baroque era was a time of magnificent fountains. Drottningholm’s baroque garden was no exception, but it would be almost three centuries before Tessin’s vision of cascading water was fully realised.

When the baroque garden was restored during the time of King Gustaf VI Adolf, it was decided that the cascades and the Crown fountain should also be reconstructed. The task was given to the palace architect at the time, Ivar Tengbom, who drew up a simplified version of Tessin the Younger’s original plan. Water could now be fed using modern pumping equipment and updated pipework. On 16 June 1961, the water flow to the Crown fountain and the cascades was turn on. For the first time, the fountains and cascades of the baroque park were working as they had been intended to 300 years previously.
A garden for all the senses - Kungliga slotten

LadyFinn · Jun 29, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, a photographer and antique dealer and expert.

The second most important room at Drottningholm Palace would have been Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s Audience Room. Today it is called the Ehrenstrahl Salon after the monumental allegorical paintings by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl of the Swedish Royal family, dating from the 1690s.
Where the commode now stand, is where the queen had her silvered throne which was upholstered in silver brocade and placed on a dais with a canopy above. There also were four stools, two carved and gilded torchères, and a large giltwood table with a marble top in here, probably all made by Burchard Precht.
The present mid-18th century oak parquet floor replaced the original white and black marble floor. The room was modernised by the architect Carl Hårleman for Queen Lovisa Ulrica in 1746-47 who also used it as her audience room. A new fire place was installed with a mirror above, and the allegorical paintings received their Rococo frames. The set of elegant Louis XV armchairs, that belonged to Queen Lovisa Ulrica, are French made by the Parisian master Louis Cresson.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBqUu6ypIiK/
Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s Audience Room at Drottningholm decorated in 1683, but modernised in 1746-47. The door to the right leads into what was a new suite of rooms that formed the apartment of King Adolph Fredric, husband of Lovisa Ulrica’s.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBqVxATJoLz/
A small panel in a window recess in Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s Audience Room, decorated c 1683, with a shield bearing Sweden’s three crowns. Behind are the caduceus of Mercury and the club of Hercules.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBqi5-tpciW/
A wonderful carved and gilt wood trophy decorated with the three crowns of Sweden. It was designed by the great architect Carl Hårleman to sit above the throne of Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s Audience Room and made c 1747.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBqj6pHp9sR/
The ceiling in the Queen’s Audience Room was painted by the French artist Évrard Chauveu with an allegory glorifying the achievements of Hedvig Eleonora’s late husband, King Carl X Gustaf, who had died in 1660, the year before the Queen bought Drottningholm.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBq6fpZJbBa/
A Rococo fire screen in Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s Audience Room frames a tapestry woven with an oriental motif.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBq-u5hpar-/
This large Gustavian commode was made as a masterpiece by Johan Christian Linning. It was commissioned by Gustaf III in 1777, but not paid for until 1782. The king placed in his son the Crown Prince Gustaf (IV) Adolph’s apartment in the Stockholm Royal Palace.
This unique piece was brought to Drottningholm in the early 20th century and placed in the Queen’s Audience Room (now called the Ehrenstrahl Salon).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBrCNONJN7h/
A very fine, ormolu, patinated bronze and marble, pair of French Louis XVI candelabra on the commode in the Ehrenstrahl Salon (The Queen’s Audience Room). They were probably purchased by Gustaf III.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBrFoHUpdt4/
When architect Carl Hårleman redecorated the Audience Room at Drottningholm for Lovisa Ulrica, he added five new over doors with paintings by Johan Pash depicting the royal regalia, this is the spire. The idea was to enhance the importance of the position of the monarch as the foremost representative of the country and its people.
During the reign of the King Adolph Fredric (Frihetstiden-The Period of Freedom) from 1751 to 1771, there was a constant power struggle with the king and the government as the king was only the figure head of the country with nominal power.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBrINqspvIN/
A rare photo from c 1865 of the Dowager Queen Josephine of Sweden and Norway seated in her salon, the former Queen’s Audience Room at Drottningholm Palace.
Josephine and her husband King Oscar I took the initiative to a much needed restoration program of the palace after they succeeded in 1844.
Drottningholm Palace had not been much used after 1809 when Gustaf IV Adolph was deposed and held prisoner her for a brief period.
Carl XIII and Carl XIV Johan (Bernadotte) preferred Rosersberg.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBsfbBMp0k0/
The Salon during the time of Oscar II in the 1890s. The furniture are mainly Gustavian from the 1780s, apart from a few Victorian pieces and Baroque table presumably by Burchard Precht. The magnificent Savonnerie carpet is one the many carpets given to Gustaf III by Louis XVI. It is still in the Swedish Royal Collections and brought out and used only on special state occasions.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBsmL-vJZiO/
The former Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s Audience Room, now called the Ehrenstrahl Salon, named after the German born artist who painted the large canvases celebrating Queen Hedvig Eleonora and her family. This photo was taken c 1970 during the time of Gustaf VI Adolf (r. 1950-1973) after the room had been restored.
The king and his Queen Louise (née Mountbatten) moved out every year to Drottningholm mid-December to celebrate Christmas here, and usually stayed until April.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBsnqj_JCcy/

LadyFinn · Jul 1, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, a photographer and antique dealer and expert.

The third and last of Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s State Rooms is the Ante Room, now the Green Salon. During Hedvig Eleonora’s time the walls were covered with tapestries from her large collection. It now looks as did after Crown Princess, later Queen, Lovisa Ulrica took over Drottningholm in 1744, when the walls were covered with a green silk damask designed by the architect Jean Eric Rehn.
Here hangs now an impressive collection of grand 18th century royal portraits. In the centre is Louis XV of France by Louis Michel van Loo, flanked by Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s parents Frederick Wilhelm I and Sophia Dorothea, King and Queen of Prussia, by Antoine Pesne.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBtGlcgpL2C/
On the opposite side hangs full length portraits of Catherine the Great of Russia by Roslin and Louis XVI of France by Antoine-François Callet. In the centre is a tiled Swedish stove from the time of Queen Lovisa Ulrica.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBtW9khpwC6/
The monogram of Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s (HERS, Hedvig Eleonora Regina Svecia) above the six doors in the Green Salon has been preserved, probably repainted at some point as it is in such a pristine state.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBtYFyUJQJf/
A pair of Gustavian mirrors and console tables made by Jean-Baptiste Masreliez c 1777 for Gustaf III’s White Room on the second floor of Drottningholm was installed here in the Green Salon in the late 19th century.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBtZGtHpbCW/
On the shelf of the blue and white tiled stove, in the Green Salon, stands elegant French Louis XV ormolu clock with a movement signed ‘Jean Godde, Paris’.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBtaQerJq6b/
The full length portrait of Louis XV of France by Louis-Michel van Loo (1707-71) has a magnificent carved giltwood frame with the coat of arms of France and Navarre. This portrait would have been a diplomatic gift to King Adolph Fredric and Queen Lovisa Ulrica of Sweden.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBtayaGpBGO/
Portraits of Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s parents Frederick Wilhelm I and Sophia Dorothea (George I of England’s daughter), King and Queen of Prussia, are also found in the Green Salon. Painted by the French born Prussian court painter Antoine Pesne (1683-1757). They were sent as gifts to Lovisa Ulrica and she was very happy to received them, but thought the painter had made her mother look unnecessarily fat! A flattering portrait is naturally more appreciated. There was a second portrait of the mother here at Drottningholm, which is now at Gripsholm Castle, where she looks even fatter!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBuaJL_pinv/
A pair of Louis XV corner cabinets signed by Louis Delaitre (master cabinetmaker in Paris from 1738).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBuejgWJf8Z/
The central room of the first floor at Drottningholm Palace is the Lower Gallery, or Carl X Gustaf’s Gallery as it became known as, was designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder. Tessin called the German painter Johann Phillip Lemke (1631-1711) to Sweden in 1683 to paint the large scenes of Carl X Gustaf’s victorious battles against the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania and the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway in the Second Nordic War 1655-60. The achieve the most accurate depictions, he was assisted by the Field Marshal Count Eric Dahlberg, who had made sketches during the campaigns.
The long ceiling was decorated by the French painter Évrard Chauveau in 1701. The gallery was also used as a dining room for larger dinners.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB0sPpxpmoA/
The Crossing of the Great Belt on the ice in February 1658 by Carl X Gustaf and his Swedish army in the war against Denmark. Painted by Johann Philip Lemke.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB0trpHJg27/
One of the four tapestries depicting Carl XI’s battles in the war with Denmark woven in 1697-1702 by the studios of Philippe Béhagle and Dominique de la Croix, in Beauvais and Paris, after Philip Lemke’s paintings at Drottningholm Palace.
The border is based on a design by Jean Bérain. This tapestry is the ‘Siege of Malmö’ in 1677.
Béhagle was very keen for the tapestries to be shown to Louis XIV, which the Swedish envoy in Paris, Daniel Cronström managed to arrange. In December 1699 Béhagle showed the Battle of Landskrona to the king and court at Versailles, and in March the following year the ‘Third Encounter during the Battle of Lund’ was hung in the Grand Apartment at Versailles and was greatly admired by Louis XIV and his court.
There were supposed to be at least another four in the series, but do the wars and lack finance, they were never woven. It is believed they were were intended to hang in one of the galleries in the Stockholm Royal Palace. Their hanging in the gallery at Drottningholm was only a temporary arrangement by the Royal Superintendent John Böttiger.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB46glfpIFP/

LadyFinn · Jul 3, 2020

A book released on 30th April
Drottningholm, a living world heritage site
Drottningholm Palace is a much-admired UNESCO World Heritage Site – the first place in Sweden to be awarded this recognition. It is a magnificent living site that encompasses much more than the palace itself. Photographer Tove Falk Olsson has spent many years documenting Drottningholm. The result is this grand illustrated work in a compact format.
This book showcases nearly 100 images of Drottningholm Palace and its environs, including the Palace Theatre, the Chinese Pavilion and the lovely parks and grounds – as well as some more unusual features.
Drottningholm, a living world heritage site
Cover
Image Upper.com - Free Image Hosting - View Image

Swedish version
Drottningholm, ett levande världsarv
Drottningholm, ett levande världsarv

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, a photographer and antique dealer and expert.

The private dining room of the king and queen of Sweden at Drottningholm Palace. This room was originally the bedroom of Carl XI’s when he stayed with his mother the Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora. The walls were originally covered with gilt-tooled leather, a popular choice in the 17th century, used in 24 rooms at Drottningholm at this time. The mahogany dining table is Swedish Biedermeier, made c 1820-1830, and the chairs are Gustavian, late 18th century.
This and the following rooms on the south side of the palace are not open to the public.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB4-UstpD5J/
’Stensalen’ (the Stone Hall) today used as the large drawing room of the King and Queen of Sweden. Its name is derived from the limestone floor, now covered by a Spanish carpet that was a gift from Alfonso XIII to Gustaf V on the occasion of his state visit to Sweden in 1929. This was Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s Dining Room decorated by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder.
The magnificently fireplace was made in 1673 by the Italian Carlo Carove who did many of the superb stucco decorations at Drottningholm Palace. The bust is a replacement, it would have originally been of either Carl X Gustaf or Carl XI.
A series of tapestries with motifs from Virgil’s Aeneid that the Queen had commissioned from the workshop of Michiel Wautiers in Antwerp, c 1670. The Queen has an impressive collection of tapestries, at Drottningholm alone she had 73 of them! The present set (except one) belonged to her predecessor Queen Christina and they have hung in here for just over a hundred years.
The room was furnished in 1673 with 12 green velvet covered chairs, a canopy in the same material with silver embroidery and fringes, a large round table and a sideboard. In 1709 a rock crystal chandelier for twelve candles hung from the ceiling. In the centre of the room stands today a drawing table made for Gustaf III c 1780 by Georg Haupt.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB6NbwtHUxN/
One of the tapestries ‘Venus, Disguised as a Hunting Nymph, Urges Aeneas to Call on Dido’, from a set of eight tapestries with motifs from Virgil’s Aeneid, commissioned by Queen Hedvig Eleonora from the workshop of Michiel Wautier in Antwerp, after cartoons by Gian Francesco Romanelli, c 1670.
The tapestries that bears the coat of arms of the Queen, hung in her Dining Room at Drottningholm.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB6PyW5HdxE/
Queen Silvia of Sweden in the Drawing Room (Stensalen) at Drottningholm Palace. This was originally Queen Hedvig Eleonora Dining Room for 1673 until her death in 1715.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB6a5XKJTXR/
The Drawing Room at Drottningholm Palace during the time of Gustaf VI Adolf and Queen Louise (née Lady Louse Mountbatten), 1950-1973.
It was they who turned this large room into a comfortable drawing room centred, after English fashion, around the fire places.
They lived at Drottningholm every winter, from Mid-December to April. They had a nomadic existence, as they moved from here to Ulriksdal Palace, which had been Queen Hedvig Eleonora favourite residence, where they stayed until it was time in June to move to their summer residence Sofiero in the South of Sweden.
When the autumn came they lived for a few moths at the Royal Palace in Stockholm, before going back to Drottningholm.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB6dO1WJxoP/

LadyFinn · Jul 6, 2020

Nice photos from Drottningholm taken a week ago.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB2qK7cJRDN/

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.
The Upper Vestibule was designed by Nicodemus Tessin as a continuation of the grand staircase with large arches opening up towards it.
The rich stucco decorations in here, and in the staircase, were done by the two Italians active at Drottningholm, Carlo Carove and Giovanni Caroveri.
This grand interior, that has the best views of the formal Baroque garden, was occasionally also used for festivities. It was in here that Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, in his role as chamberlain and superintendent, arranged a banquet to celebrate Carl XII’s twentieth birthday on 17th May 1702. Tessin’s seating plan with an eight-sided table set for twenty two guests is preserved. Several more tables were set up in the two adjacent guard rooms. Tessin has even suggested a menu for the event.
The king himself was absent as he was in Poland with his army fighting August the Strong, so his grandmother the Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora was the hostess.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB-N6HpJ-uj/
The crowned monogram by Carlo Carove of Queen Hedvig Eleonora (HERS) is placed over the two doors in the Upper Vestibule.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB-OsanJ-Vu/
The ceiling of the Upper Vestibule at Drottningholm Palace was painted by Johan Sylvius. He had studied in Italy and France, and was working at Windsor Castle together with Antonio Verrio, before he was called home to Sweden to work here. The central motif, the Greek Gods of Mount Olympus, was inspired by a fresco in Villa Borgese in Rome by Giovanni Lanfranco.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB-P1rEJLgw/
Carl XII of Sweden’s 20th birthday was celebrated 17th June, 1702, with a banquet at Drottningholm Palace. As he was away in Poland fighting against August the Strong, King of Poland, it was his grandmother the Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora (1636-1715) who hosted the celebrations. It was the architect Count Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, who as Royal Superintendent and chamberlain, oversaw the festivities.
He made a sketch over the seating in the Upper Vestibule at Drottningholm Palace that has miraculously survived.
A portrait of the young Carl XII of Sweden (1682-1718), by Georg Desmarées (1697-1776), after an original by David von Krafft.
The Dowager Queen Hedvig Elenora (1636-1715), née Princess of Holstein-Gottorp, attributed to David von Krafft (1655-1724). She is portrayed seated with Drottningholm Palace in the background
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB_k21_J0dI/
The Upper Vestibule at is furnished with a set of busts of 16th century Roman Emperors. In the square niches above are marble busts of ‘Gothic’ kings, sculpted by Nicolaes Millich (1633-99), who had been called in from Antwerp to produce a large number of marble sculptures for the Drottningholm Palace.
The French faience urns, made c 1680, bears Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s monogram, and are part of a large set that were placed out in the formal garden.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB_nCiUJNe2/
The view from the Vestibule out over the Baroque garden at Drottningholm Palace is the best.
Work began in 1662 with the felling of trees and draining the land, but it took many years to create. There was always a problem to get the fountains working. It was a lot more elaborate and when the modern reconstruction took place the elaborate embroidery parterre was considerably simplified. It also had lots more flowers than now.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCA8tr4p3Lb/
King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden (1882-1973) standing in the Upper Vestibule in by one of the large French faience garden urns made for Queen Hedvig Eleonora, c 1680. Photo taken in the early 1960s before the staircase and vestibules at Drottningholm Palace were restored and the original marbling was recreated.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCGc0l_pRNw/
A marble bust of King Carl XI (1655-97), by the sculptor Nicolaes Millich, stand on a pedestal in the gallery in front of the central window which overlooks the main staircase.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCLE6BxpRl_/

LadyFinn · Jul 8, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

The Upper South Guards Room at Drottningholm Palace is one of the best preserved Baroque interiors here. Decorated in 1671-73 after Nicodemus Tessin the Elder’s design with architectural elements, influenced from Italian, Dutch and French interiors.
The wall panels were decorated in a style influenced by Jean Bérain by René Chauveau in 1695. This room would have served as anteroom to the Hall of State next door and used during festivities, rather then by the royal guards.
King Gustaf VI Adolf used this room for his Christmas celebrations as he lived here each winter, until the last year of his life 1973. He followed the old traditional in the Swedish royal family where no presents were wrapped, and there was table for each member of the family where the gifts were laid out.
The family gathered outside this room and when the Queen rang a small silver bell the doors were opened and the children rushed in. The king is known to have been very generous with his presents and spent a lot time choosing them!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCHIiwNpzUx/
The ceiling in the Upper South Guards Room was decorated with elaborate stucco work by Carlo Carove in 1672. The centre was painted with the mythological motif of ‘The Fall of Phaëthon’ by Johan Sylvius in 1694.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCHO5oyJRJL/
The six plaster cartouches by Carlo Carove around the walls in the Guards Room ate painted with emblems and thoughtful messages in Latin.
Here is:
1. ‘Comes fidissima’ (the most faithful companion), and ‘Nec cesso nec erro’ (do not cease to give, nor to wander).
2. ‘Crescit ut aspicitor [sic] (it grows when viewed).
3. ‘Uno sole minor’ (only less than the sun). The stars were associated with divinity, beauty and high properties. No description have been found to tell us what these symbols and inscriptions were meant to tell us.
It was probably meant to be enigmatic and make the viewer reflect.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCJTNK2JNdp/
One of the grandest and best preserved Baroque interiors at Drottningholm Palace is the Carl XI’s Gallery (or the Upper Gallery) on the top floor. It was designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger with work starting in 1687.
Five windows overlooks the Lake Mälaren and the landing stage where the royals and their guests would arrive by boat from Stockholm. The inner wall has three arched French windows overlooking the grand central staircase of the palace.
As the name suggests, the gallery is a celebration of Carl XI’s reign and in particular his victorious war against Denmark. The battle scenes from the war were painted by Johann Philip Lemke and installed here in 1695. It was after showing the king these battle scenes that Tessin managed to persuade the parsimonious king to commission a set of tapestries woven in France after them. The king was reluctant, until Tessin told him that the Danish king Christian V had commissioned a set glorifying the Danish efforts in the same war!
The intricately patterned floor was laid in 1692 with white marble and brown limestone tiles by German workmen. This interior was part of Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s plan for Drottningholm Palace to be a celebration and a monument of the achievements of her husband Carl X Gustaf and her son Carl XI’s reigns, as well as to glorify the royal dynasty.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCLAn2hJu_I/
The high, vaulted ceiling of Carl XI’s Gallery was painted by Johan Sylvius with allegorical motifs in three sections. They celebrate the king’s victorious war against Denmark, the successful peace treaty, after which the king married the Danish king’s daughter, Princess Ulrica Eleonora, and finally the king’s glorious rule of Sweden after the peace.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCLCwu7p2RX/
One of the grand French faience garden urns with Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s crowned monograms commissioned c 1680, now in Carl XI’s Gallery.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCLJNitJ_Vn/
The Upper North Guards Room was designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder in 1672 with Ionic pilasters. This was the first room in the King’s State Apartment, placed directly above that of the Queen’s. The present decorative paint work wasn’t done until after 1744, during the time of Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s tenancy. To make this room symmetrical, three of the doors in this room are painted trompe l’oeil. Behind the door to the left is the only staircase up to the large, but empty attic.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCMoHh-JFcp/
The ceiling by Johan Sylvius was painted in 1692 with the mythological motif ‘Chronos Thrown into the Abyss by his son Zeus’.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCMo1PoJXia/
Details of the exquisite trompe Rococo l’oeil paintwork added by an unknown artist after 1744 during the time of Queen Lovisa Ulrica.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCMpSD_JZqH/
The coat of arms of Sweden painted trompe l’oeil in the North Upper Guards Room in the King’s State Apartment at Drottningholm Palace.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCMpmJcJoU_/
A bronze bust of Carl X Gustaf of Sweden (1622-60) by the German sculptor Georg Schweigger (1613-90), dates 1649.
The coat of arms on the base is that of the Wittelsbach dynasty that the king belonged to. He was born in Sweden as a Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, was made a prince of Sweden and designated Heir Apparent by Queen Christina in 1649. He inherited the title Duke of Stegeborg, when his father died in 1652, and succeeded as king in 1654 when Queen Christina abdicated. He was married to Princess Hedvig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, who as a widow, bought and built the present Drottningholm Palace.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCQZQklJLqD/

LadyFinn · Jul 12, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

The one major work at Drottningholm Palace that was done during the time of Fredric I and Queen Ulrica Eleonora was the completion of the Royal Chapel.
The architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder decided in 1667 to add two pavilions with domes, one at either end of the palace. One for the chapel, the other for the kitchens on the lower floors and an apartment for the Queen’s Governor, Count Gyllenstierna above. The exterior was completed in 1698, and it was in temporary use in 1724, but it wasn’t until 1728 that it was completed by the architect Carl Hårleman for Queen Ulrica Eleonora the Younger.
The chapel was formally inaugurated in 1730.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCVTMQuJgLb/
The main entrance to the Royal Chapel at Drottningholm was from an inner courtyard. Here seen from one of the windows of Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s State Bedroom.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCVTe_tJ0Zz/
The interior of the Royal Chapel is quite simple and austere with Corinthian columns and pilasters below an undecorated dome.
The altar is on the north side, not on the east which was most common. The large painting of the Holy Communion (Eucharist) was painted by Queen Ulrica Eleonora’s court painter Engelhard Schröder after Rubens. The frame with bulbous clouds and angels was most likely designed by Hårleman.
Balconies on either side of the altar are for the pulpit and for the organ built by Johan Nicolas Cahman.
A larger balcony opposite the altar was reserved for the royal family. It now bears the monogram of Gustaf V and Queen Victoria, who instigated a major and much needed restoration of the palace that began in 1908.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCVVAXDpzUo/
The carved giltwood stand for the baptismal font was most likely to have been designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger and carved by Burchard Precht.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCVVjFBJzas/
The enormous and festive ormolu and crystal chandelier in the Royal Chapel was originally made c 1850 for the ballroom Vita Havet in the Stockholm Royal Palace. It was found in a sad state in storage some years ago when it was decided to restore it and hang it in here.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCVWCtvp0HT/
Drottningholm Palace as it is today. The second image shows what it looked like before Crown Princess Lovisa Ulrica began adding more rooms by raising the low interconnecting wings with one extra story.
The architect Carl Hårleman cleverly managed to build these extensions in a style that harmonised with Nicodemus Tessin the Elder’s Baroque architecture. Work began in 1747 and would continue until the 1760s.
Lovisa Ulrica and her husband Adolph Fredric would spend large sums of money carefully modernised the interiors. The Queen respected and liked the historic rooms and largely preserved them as they were. She chose Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s State Bedroom as her bedroom, the grandest Baroque interior at the palace.
The bronze sculpture by Adrian de Vries of Hercules fighting the dragon Ladon (now a modern copy) on the fountain in the foreground, was looted by the Swedish army in 1648 from the garden of Wallenstein’s palace in Prag. The fountain forms the centre piece in Drottningholm’s Baroque garden.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCcvJITpGkW/

LadyFinn · Jul 16, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

Lovisa Ulrica used Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s State Bedroom as her private bedchamber. The original Baroque decor was left untouched, but she had a new canopied bed made after a design by the architect Jean Eric Rehn. He also designed the silk brocade for the bed and for the walls in the alcove that was probably woven by the French silk weaver Bartholomé Peyron in Stockholm. Lovisa Ulrica and her ladies in waiting embroidered the headboard decorations and the borders on the fabric covering the walls of the alcove.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCiIdsEp4be/
This giltwood Rococo table was probably designed by Carl Hårleman and made in the 1740s.
Lovisa Ulrica placed it been the windows in her Bedchamber at Drottningholm Palace. It is still at Drottningholm, but now in the room directly above.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCjSoU7JSK6/
A French Louis XV commode by the Parisian master Jacques-Philippe Carel (master 1732) that had belonged to Queen Ulrica Eleonora the Younger (who was the godmother of Lovisa Ulrica, although they never met). It was brought from Gripsholm Castle in 1744 and placed in Lovisa Ulrica’s Bedroom at Drottningholm. It is the Green Cabinet next today.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCmMB3tJ5P5/
The Green Cabinet, was the first room decorated by Carl Hårleman in 1746-47 for Crown Princess Lovisa Ulrica. It was her official writing room and a portrait collection of her Prussian relatives hung on the green silk damask covered walls. Today a collection of pastel portraits by Gustaf Lundberg (1695-1786) of the Queen’s family hang in here.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCmM-TrJFJb/
A set of Rococo armchairs in the Green Cabinet are covered with a fabric said to have been embroidered by the Queen Lovisa Ulrica and her ladies in waiting.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCmNdAvJDGL/
One of the two different mirrors in the Green Cabinet is decorated with the Swedish coat of arms of the three crowns. At the top is a pair of dragon wings, a favourite motif, frequently used by the architect Carl Hårleman.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCmOPYppt3A/
A painting of a still-life with a hare and a partridge by the French animal painter Jean-Baptist Oudry (1686-1755), signed and dated 1739, is fitted into the elaborate frame of the second mirror in the Green Cabinet.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCmPD4YpIHk/
Pastel portraits by Lundberg of King Adolph Fredric (1710-71) and his and Lovisa Ulrica’s son, Crown Prince Gustaf (III) born in 1746.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCmPdbip7n6/
One of the elegant French rock crystal chandeliers made c 1700 that are found at Drottningholm Palace.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCmQoRwpJB2/
Jean Eric Rehn decorated Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s Blue Cabinet around 1760 by joining two smaller rooms. He kept the marble chimneypiece and mirror above from Carl Hårleman’s decor of one of the two rooms. It was used as the queen’s private writing room. The walls were covered with a blue Chinese silk damask and the queen’s collection of Dutch and Flemish Old Masters hung in here. This room, together with the two adjacent dressing rooms, the last of her private rooms.
Above the elegant Gustavian commode by Georg Haupt hang portraits of Gustaf III and his family.
The next five rooms were built and decorated by Rehn for Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s extensive collection of books, coins, medals, minerals, etc.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCnSgHQJCaP/
A portrait by Carle van Loos of his five year old daughter is placed in the elaborate mirror frame. The design of the mirror with hissing dragons are typical for designs by Carl Hårleman. The portrait had been commissioned in Paris from the artist in 1739 by Carl Gustaf Tessin, and acquired by Lovisa Ulrica in 1754.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCnT7b4JeRZ/
A portrait of Queen Maria Leczinska (1703-68) in coronation robes, by Louis-Michel van Loo (1707-71). She was the wife of Louis XV of France and daughter of Stanislaw Leczinsky, former King of Poland.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCoXU0QJMOG/

LadyFinn · Jul 28, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

The Library at Drottningholm Palace is the first of a series of rooms that were built to house the collection of Queen Lovisa Ulrica, her ‘Museum Lovisæ Ulricæ’.
It was originally built by Carl Hårleman as an art gallery, but it was soon changed for her growing collection of artefacts. By 1760 the Queen decided she needed a larger library so she commissioned Jean Eric Rehn to redecorate the gallery. It took a few years to complete, but it became in my humble opinion, the most beautiful library in Sweden!
The style is early Neoclassicism or ‘Goût Grec’ decorated in white and gold with pilasters. The bookshelves were lined with expensive cedar wood. Their smell kept the moths away and added to the ambience of the room. As the room was only used during the daytime there were no chandeliers in here. Three rare French rock crystal chandeliers were hung in here for Decorative purposes after the major restoration that Drottningholm underwear from 1908. In the niche between the doors stood the so-called Alhambra Vase during Lovisa Ulrica’s time.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDEU8_kpnYo/
A detail of the niche on the south wall of the library with a plaster relief of Clio, the muse of History.
Above the five windows are more reliefs with Minerva, Polyhymnia, Erato, Calliope and Urania.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDEW3fXJSTh/
The north wall of the Library at Drottningholm Palace.
The mirror, with Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s crowned monogram, might have been part of the original interior designed by Carl Hårleman in the 1740s.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDEZbjRpGND/
A detail of the beautiful locks on the doors in the Library at Drottningholm Palace.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDEb6-JJh6Y/
The Library at Drottningholm Palace has five French windows overlooking the formal Baroque garden.
The elegant wrought iron railings were designed with Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s crowned monogram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDFfmYqJg5V/
The Marble Cabinet (Marmorkabinettet) was Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s first library at Drottningholm Palace. After the new library was finished she commissioned Jean Eric Rehn to create this room as an early example of Neoclassicism in 1765. Rehn used two antique marble from the Queen’s collection (Egyptian?) with Ionic capitals to create aedicule which camouflaged a tiled stove heated by the open fireplace in the Library on the other side. A bronze urn cast in 1766 by Gerhard Meyer after Rehn’s design was placed between the columns.
Most unusual is that the walls were decorated with polished marble stucco, the first room in the Swedish royal palaces to be decorated this way. There were several rooms in the Prussian palaces with polished marble stuccoed walls, so it is possible Lovisa Ulrica had hired German craftsmen to do this work.
It was a technic that had been used in Roman times and became popular once more during the Renaissance in Italy. In Sweden it became popular in the 19th century.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDKBJagJr5p/
The Marble Cabinet was used by Queen Lovisa Ulrica as her private study. The bookshelves were made by the cabinet maker Georg Haupt, and the plinth for the sculpture symbolising the Visual Arts by the Italian Antonio Gais, was probably made by Lorentz Nordin.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDKJ4XDJiWA/
Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s desk was made as the masterpiece by the famous Swedish cabinetmaker Georg Haupt.
It had been commissioned by King Adolph Fredric as a Christmas gift in 1770. It took seven months to make and was placed in the Marble Cabinet when it was delivered and has remained at Drottningholm Palace ever since. It is an exceptionally fine piece and a very early piece of Neoclassical furniture.
When the late King Gustaf VI Adolf (d. 1973), lived at Drottningholm during the winters, he had this desk placed in his large drawing room.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDKK3f2poO0/
This Rococo chandelier with white porcelain flowers (Meissen?) that belonged to Queen Lovisa Ulrica is apparently original to the Marble Cabinet. The contrast is surprising.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDKS6D6J8u-/

LadyFinn · Aug 4, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

The three last rooms in Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s apartment was decorated to house her various collections.
The first is the Coin Cabinet (Myntcabinettet) decorated by the architect Carl Hårleman and finished in 1753. The panelled walls were painted in trompe l’oeil to imitate being veneered in walnut. The room, that is remarkably well preserved, has never been restored, but the paintwork has faded a bit.
The queen had bought Carl Gustaf Tessin’s large collection of coins and medals and then added to it until it was the finest in the country. The queen’s finances were never good, and in 1765 she had to sell the whole collection to the Crown. It was housed in eight specially made cabinets and was kept here at Drottningholm until the 1790s. Gustaf III added the long worktable in the centre of the room in the 1780s upon which he placed the five cork models of buildings from antiquity that he had bought in 1784 from Giovanni Altieri in Naples.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDPmIQvJKnE/
This is one of the eight cabinets filled with coins and medals that stood in the queen’s Coin Cabinet at Drottningholm. It is thought that they stood back to back in the centre of the room and not against the walls.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDPnM4lpcTa/
Queen Lovisa Ulrica placed the elegant bronze bust of her beloved husband King Adolph Fredric, sculpted in 1749 by the Frenchman Jacque-Philippe Bouchardon, in a mirrored niche in here.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDPn5YhpcSj/
This wax statue stands today in the Coin Cabinet where King Adolph Fredric’s bronze bust once stood on a pedestal. It depicts Nicolas Ferry (known as Bébé) (1741-64), a French dwarf who became renowned as the court dwarf of King Stanisław Lesczcyńsky. In 1746 Bébé came to live at the king’s court in Lunéville as he was Duke of Lorraine and no longer king of Poland.
Bébé became spoilt and indulged by the king and his court. He played practical jokes on visitors and often behaved very badly, but he was the king’s favourite and a great attraction. He sadly grew old prematurely, his health declined and he died only 22 years old. His inscribed mausoleum is now preserved at the Château de Lunéville. There exists a number of wax statues of him and some of his outfits are preserved in museum in Nancy.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDPqyA4JaYl/
The smallest room in Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s museum rooms is the Mineral Cabinet, formerly the Church Cabinet, as it was part of the royal balcony in the Drottningholm Chapel. It was decorated in 1768 by Jean Eric Rehn when the queen’s growing collection of minerals were separated from the Natural History Collection.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDSK_31Jrje/
The three richly decorated over-doors in the Mineral Cabinet at Drottningholm Palace designed by Jean Eric Rehn, alludes to the function in the room behind
1. Above the door to the Natural Cabinet
2. Above the door to the Coin Cabinet
3. Above the door to the Royal Tribune in the Royal Chapel
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDSMJCWpaN6/
The last of Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s museum rooms is the Natural History Cabinet. The architect Jean Eric Rehn decorated the room in 1765 with built in cabinets with glass doors and open shelves below for the queen’s herbarium in cartons bound in calfskin with her coat of arms embossed in gold.
Above the doors and around the walls are six terracotta coloured medallions of Swedish scientists by the sculptor Sergel. The room was furnished with two cabinets by Lorentz Nordin for insects, and a now lost cabinet with samples of minerals given to the queen by Friedrich August II, Elector of Saxony (King August III of Poland). A wooden sarcophagus with an Egyptian mummy purchased by the Queen stand in the niche it was intended for.
The suite of rooms that contained the ‘Museum Ludovicæ Ulricaæ’ was emptied of their collections a very long time, but a few pieces have been returned to these rooms that have survived intact since her days.
The Queen’s museum with its remarkable collections weren’t open to the general public, but it was open for learned men and scientists to study, as well as to aristocratic visitors and to foreign tourist.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDYvvJiJQym/
Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s ‘Garderobe’, or Dressing Room, at Drottningholm was decorated with panelling and built cupboards after designs by Hårleman.
The blue and white tiled stove was made at Rörstrand’s factory in Stockholm.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDb5pSnpgWP/
The blue painted panelling in Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s ‘Garderobe’ is decorated with elegant garlands of flower that are remarkably well preserved.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDb6sR9p32A/
The Louis XV chandelier and matching appliques are made in argent haché (silvered bronze) in the asymmetrical style of Juste-Aurèle Meissonnnier. They were purchased in Paris in 1754 by the Royal Superintendent Carl Fredric Adelcrantz for King Adolph Fredric’s private apartment in the Stockholm Royal Palace. Gustaf III installed them in here in 1777 after he had taken over Drottningholm from his mother Lovisa Ulrica.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDb7tzGJv8s/
Four elegant Louis XV armchairs signed George Jacob are places in the Queen’s Garderobe. Chairs like these were imported to Sweden and used as models for Swedish chair-makers to copy.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDcD6sopxoS/
This is a Rococo chair at Drottningholm Palace made in Stockholm by a Swedish chair maker after imported French chairs.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDdhmIiJ91p/
Two other Rococo chairs at Drottningholm Palace inspired by French Louis XV models made in Stockholm. This model was made in a great number for King Adolph Fredric and Lovisa Ulrica’s apartments in the Stockholm Royal Palace during the 1740s and 1750s.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDdjvGipfGR/

Groth tells that these rooms are not open to the public, they are too small and fragile to be open. Small groups are allowed to visit sometimes.

LadyFinn · Aug 11, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

Giltwood Rococo stools like this one were used in royal ceremonies when the etiquette dictated who had the right to sit in the presence of the royal family.
The king and queen would sit on armchairs, the princes and princesses on chairs with upholstery seat and backs, and only high ranking ladies at court where allowed to sit on a stool. The other courtiers and visitors had to remain standing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDeX0V2pGpn/
A Rococo library table made for Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s first library at Drottningholm, c 1750, possibly by the cabinetmaker Lorentz Nordin in Stockholm.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDeYs7dp24y/
A small Gustavian Antechamber on the top floor at Drottningholm, directly above the Queen’s Garderobe. The magnificent Rococo secretaire was signed in 1766 by Johan Nicolas Eckstein (c 1732-76).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDg1S1qpkAm/
The architect Carl Hårleman decorated a new apartment for King Adolph Fredric at Drottningholm Palace in 1752. It was adjacent to that of his wife, Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s Apartment. It comprised of an audience room (above), a bedroom, a cabinet, a dressing room, an a wood turning cabinet. This, the king’s audience room, is the only room preserved as it originally was.
In 1752 it had blue silk on the walls and the king’s giltwood throne was upholstered in blue silk with gold embroidery and it stood on a dais with canopy above. The other rooms in the apartment were redecorated by Gustaf III for Queen Sophia Magdalena after 1777.
Later in the 19th century, Queen Sophia (wife of Oscar II) lived here, and after 1908 it Gustaf V’s lived here until his death in 1950. Today it is used as a guest apartment.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDj37JXpkKQ/
King Adolph Fredric’s bedroom at Drottningholm was designed by Carl Hårleman and decorated in 1752.
Today the panelling is painted white with gilded decorations and there is a a red silk damask on the walls. Originally the panelling was painted purple and there was green silk moire on the walls and bed. The sculpted framework and mouldings were silvered, an usual colour combination. The king slept in a grand ‘lit à la Polonaise’ with embroidered green silk moire hangings decorated with silver braid.
It is believed that the pilasters, the mirror and the carved framework was ‘recycled’ from the Wrangel Palace in Stockholm which had served as a temporary royal palace between the fire in 1697 and until the new Stockholm Royal Palace was ready to move into in 1754. After the royals moved out from the Wrangel Palace, the rooms were stripped bare and all the furniture removed.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDkKSM6Jjfa/
Portrait of the formidable Dowager Queen Lovisa Ulrica of Sweden (1720-82), by Alexander Roslin, 1775. She was born a princess of Prussia, and a sister of Fredrick the Great, who in 1744 was married to Crown Prince (in 1751 king) Adolph Fredric of Sweden.
She was beautiful, intelligent, with a great interest in culture and science, but with fierce temperament and a strong will. She was the mother of five children, of whom the eldest was King Gustaf III.
Lovisa Ulrica was granted Drottningholm Palace as her summer residence upon her arrival in Sweden in 1744. She loved the palace and considered it her real home and spent large sums to redecorate and extend it in the fashionable French Rococo style.
She was widowed in 1771, and sadly her relationship with her son Gustaf III deteriorated the following year when she wanted to share the power with him after he had stage a coup d’etat when he took power from the government, but he wasn’t having anything of that. In 1777 she was forced to hand over her beloved Drottningholm to him as she could no longer afford to maintain it.
After a final schism in 1778 when she had questioned the legitimacy of Gustaf’s newly born son and heir, they didn’t see each other until she lay dying at Svartsjö Palace in 1782 when there was a final reconciliation of sorts between them.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDnrwzDpDmt/
A fascinating painting of the White Cabinet, or Lecture Room, by Pehr Hilleström from 1779. It is the only contemporary depiction of any of the rooms at Drottningholm Palace. Hilleström is known for the attention to details in his paintings.
It may have been the first of the newly decorated rooms created by Jean Baptiste Masreliez for Gustaf III after he took possession of the palace in 1777. The wall hangings and the curtains were made of hand-painted Chinese silk taffeta.
The king is seen sitting in the centre of the sofa on the left hand side in front of a table with books and architectural drawings.
The king and his courtiers are dressed in the ‘Swedish Costume’ (Svenska dräkten), the ladies in the official court dress, with the exception of Queen Sophia Magdalena. The ladies are doing needlework, and probably gossiping which was a popular pastime at court.
This painting was intended as a gift to be sent by Gustaf III to his cousin the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia. Possible as a thank you for the bust of herself that she had sent him, which can be seen on the console table in the background.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDt_1vGpbLd/

LadyFinn · Aug 13, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

The White Cabinet, or Lecture Room, is today known as the Blue Salon. Two of the large mirrors were removed in the mid-nineteenth century and placed in the Green Salon on the floor below (third photo). The Louis XVI style blue silk on the walls was put up in 1926.
Today the room is very disappointing as it is without two of the mirrors and the with the original furniture missing. It is now furnished at random with some fine pieces from the Royal Collections, but it could easily be restored back to its original state as how it was in Hilleström’s painting.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDuBG-FpTDF/
The very tall long-case clock (over three meters) was made in Prussia in the mid-eighteenths century, but the movement is English, late seventeenths century, signed William Jourdain, London.
It was very possible a gift from Frederick the Great of Prussia to his sister Queen Lovisa Ulrika of Sweden. It beats her inventory stamp for Drottningholm Palace.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDuDlGYJpfb/
The biscuit porcelain bust (most likely Russian) of the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia that she gave to her cousin Gustaf III.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDuKnHJpdg3/
An eighteenths century birdcage in what I believe is Meissen porcelain. The pair of Empire ormolu and patinated bronze candelabra are early nineteenth century.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDuLVGdpRz7/
A unique cabinet that contains samples of silk produced in Sweden, made by the cabinet maker Nils Petter Stenström (1750-90) in Stockholm. It was presented to Gustaf III in 1781 by the silk merchant Adrian Hardt, with a view to get the king interested in Swedish silk growing. The inlaid door panels shows the different processes involved in silk production.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDuMVcZJ-6S/
The Blue Salon was used as a guest bedroom for prominent guests at Drottningholm in the 19th century.
Emperor Alexander II slept in the Empire bed, when he visited as Crown Prince, as did another important guest, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.
The photo isn’t the best as I scanned it from a book published in 1899.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDuQpZsp7RS/
The unique tiled stove in Chinese style, in what is now called the Chinese Salon, was made in Russia and given to Gustaf III when he visited the Imperial Porcelain Factory outside St Petersburg 2 July 1777. It has been the subject of different speculations of its origin, one was that it was a gift from the Chinese Emperor to Gustaf III, another that it was English and made in Bow.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDvWj-hJIoQ/
The Chinese Salon at Drottningholm Palace was decorated by Jean Baptiste Masreliez for Gustaf III in 1779. It was then known as the ‘Conversation Room’.
It is today furnished with a suite of Louis XV armchairs signed Louis Cresson (1706-61), upholstered with the same silk as covers the walls woven in Stockholm in recent years by Almgrens silk weaving factory after a design by Jean Eric Rehn from the 1750s.
During the time of Gustaf III it was furnished with a Gustavian sofa and chairs, but I’m not sure when it was decided to furnish it as a Rococo interior?
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDwkixqpudI/
One of the most famous pieces of furniture at Drottningholm Palace is this commode by Georg Haupt bearing the monogram ‘G’ for Gustaf III. It is in fact a bed that was used by the king’s page at night. It was made for the king’s summer palace Ekolsund and when that property was sold in 1785 the commode was brought here. There is a similar commode/bed (vaktsäng) by Haupt at the Stockholm Royal Palace.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDxpQ8dJvTR/
The Chinese Salon was known as the Conversation Room when it was decorated in 1779 by Jean Baptist’s Masreliez for Gustaf III. It was originally furnished with two gilt wood console tables placed underneath the mirrors, a Gustavian sofa, six armchairs, and twenty four chairs upholstered with a blue silk damask.
For a while it had served as bedroom for King Adolph Fredric (Gustaf III’s father) and it is positioned directly above Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s State Bedroom. The two rooms are connected by a small staircase hidden behind concealed doors.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDxqleXpWRF/
A typical Russian crystal chandelier with a red glass stem hangs in the Chinese Salon. It was purchased in St Petersburg during a month long visit that the young King Gustaf IV Adolph did in August-September 1796, accompanied by his uncle Prince Carl. The purpose of this trip was to meet Catherine the Great’s granddaughter, the grand Duchess Alexandra, as the the young king wanted to get married.
Religious problems prevented the engagement and marriage of the two as the king was Lutheran and the Grand Duchess Russian Orthodox, and she refused convert.
The Empress was furious and she had a stroke not long after, perhaps because of this incident, which led to her death in November the same year.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDywVeipG0N/

LadyFinn · Aug 19, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

One of a pair of Gustavian console table tables with Russian lapis lazuli tops that were commissioned in 1777 by Gustaf III from ‘Le Moulin’ in Peterhof. The tables were placed in the Green Cabinet (Council Room).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD7Ir5wJ26F/
This was the first porphyry urn made and mined in Sweden in 1787 in Älvdalen (Elfdalen). The porphyry works was started as private enterprise with the approval of Gustaf III. The small ormolu mounted urn was presented to the king who placed in his Council Room at Drottningholm. Today it is kept in the Library.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD7JuQ1JtOO/
A Gustavian chair at Drottningholm Palace made by one of the chair makers in Stockholm.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD7KN5XJ3Xo/
A travelling desk in the Royal Collections at Drottningholm Palace made by Georg Haupt in 1780. The legs can be removed and it can then be placed underneath a seat in a carriage.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD7SSTMpFgt/
The Hall of State (Rikssalen) at Drottningholm Palace was redecorated in 1856-58 by the architect Fredric Wilhelm Scholander for Oscar I and Queen Josephine, who had decided to create a ‘Salle des Contemporain’ in here with portraits of European monarchs. This idea was not a new one in Sweden, as there were two such galleries at Gripsholm Castle, one created by Carl IX (r. 1604-11), and the second by Gustaf III (r. 1771-92).
Oscar I was the second monarch of the Bernadotte dynasty in Sweden, and was not able create an ancestral gallery as other much more ancient European dynasties had done.
Thanks to Queen Josephine’s royal relatives, she was the one who wrote asking the kings and queens for their portraits for this project. It took several years for all of the portraits (22 full length and three smaller oval ones) to be painted, and the last ones didn’t arrive until in the 1860s. King Oscar takes pride of place with portraits of Emperor Napoleon III (after Winterhalter) and Queen Victoria (also after Winterhalter) on either side. Sadly the throne chair that was placed underneath the king’s portraits is for some reason in storage, so the room looks rather empty now.
The Hall was used for large receptions and banquets, but today dancing is not permitted in here as the old beams supporting the floor are too frail.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEBnRbiJLzx/
The original ceiling in the Hall of State, painted at the end of the 17th century by Johan Sylvius and Évrard Chauveau with the gods of the Olympus, was preserved when the hall was redecorated in 1856-58.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEBpL81pAwv/
An amusing detail painted on the ceiling by Johan Sylvius is a black clock (orre, sometimes translates as grouse) crooning.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEBuFqep4Vn/
Portraits of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia and Pope Pius IX in the Hall of State at Drottningholm. The portrait of the pope was painted by the Swedish artist Sophie Adlersparre who happened to be studying in Rome at the time.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEBuuydJYXf/
The frame of the portrait of Pope Pius IX is crowned by a papal tiara. The French imperial crown sits on the frame of Napoleon III’s portrait.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEBvG84JLJS/
Some more of the portraits of the European in the Hall of State at Drottningholm. The portrait of Sultan of Turkey, Abdülmecid I by Ruben Manasie was also included in the collection.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEBwz4xpXq9/

LadyFinn · Aug 24, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

Queen Josephine of Sweden not only collected the portraits of the monarchs of Europe for the Hall of State, she also created the Queens Room with portraits of the wives of the rulers in the adjacent room.
Above the sofa is a portrait of Queen Josephine (top) by Sophie Adlersparre (who had painted the portrait of Pope Pius IX next door), Empress Eugénie of France (below), Queen Elisabeth of Prussia (her aunt, to the left), and Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) of Austria (to the right).
The portraits of the reigning queens Victoria of Great Britain and Isabella of Spain’s hang in the Hall of State, but there was no space for their consorts, Prince Albert and Prince Francisco.
The room itself had no particular decor and a light coloured floral silk damask was hung on the walls. In the 1890s Oscar II removed the Gustavian doors and overdoors by Jean Baptist Masreliez from what had been Gustaf III’s games room, as he was re-decorating it to be become the Oscar Hall (no. 3 on the plan), and installed them here.
The present green fabric (from the French firm Lelièvre) on walls and Gustavian furniture dates from 1974 when the room was restored for the occasion of Princess Christina’s marriage that was celebrated with a dinner and dance here at Drottningholm.
In here we can now find Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s desk by Georg Haupt made in 1771.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEEBUD3JQpm/
In the Yellow Salon, which served as an Anteroom, hang three tapestries from Brussels, woven 1650-1660s.
The tapestry in the second photo is symbolising ‘The Day’, with the sun god Apollo, woven in the workshop of Guillaume Van Leefdael (active 1656-84).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEGKtbEJyB-/
A tapestry, woven 1650-1660s in Hendrik I Reydams (active 1640-69) workshop in Brussels, titled ‘The Four Elements and Time’. From left, Neptune (Water), Juno (Air), Jupiter (Fire), and Pluto (Earth). Saturn (Time) is seen in the centre.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEGLkqTpf8j/
The Generals Hall at Drottningholm is devoted to the memory of the great warrior king, Carl XII (1682-1718) and his generals.
It was his sister Queen Ulrica Eleonora the Younger who had collected the portraits painted by David von Krafft that in the 1740s was hung in here. The king’s portrait hangs between the windows where it’s hardly visible. There are also three battle scenes in here.
Oscar II commissioned the palace architect Agi Lindegren to decorate the room in a Baroque style suitable for the portraits. The panelling was painted dark blue with gilt decorations.
Gustaf V (1858-1950), who was born at Drottningholm and died here, used to celebrate Christmas in this room. The room was then decorated with Christmas trees and had separate tables set up for each member of the royal family where their presents were displayed unwrapped.
The room is presently undergoing a restoration and I sincerely hope they will replace the worn and ugly fabric on the chairs with something more appropriate!
None of the public rooms at Drottningholm has any proper curtains (which they used to have), only simple white ones for protection, such a shame as textiles were always such an important part of an interior.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEH8T7hJpMP/
The Swedish small coat of arms with the three crowns adorns the frames of the battle scenes in the Generals Hall. They must have been designed by the architect Carl Hårleman (d. 1753) who favoured using dragon wings in his designs.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEH8yA0pCmh/
The ceiling in the Generals Hall is adorned with a 17th century painting that Oscar II has bought from the country house Sjöö and put up in here.
It is painted with a motif from the saga of Ragnar Lodbrok (or Lothbrok), a legendary Viking hero, born c 795 in Denmark or Sweden, and who died in England or Denmark in 845 or 865.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEH96rYJagX/
The window wall in the Generals Hall has painted decorations designed in the Baroque style by the architect Agi Lindegren from the 1890s. It is just possible to see the portrait of Carl XII by David von Krafft between the windows.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEJKiHIJ1ZZ/
The Oscar Hall was redecorated in 1897 for Oscar II (the year of his silver jubilee as monarch) by the palace architect Agi Lindegren. The Gustavian decor by Jean Baptist Masreliez was removed and replaced by a new decor in Baroque style as a frame for a suite of English tapestries woven in Mortlake, London, in the 1630s. They had been commissioned by King Charles I of England and bears the king’s coat of arms. They were most likely sold by Cromwell (who closed the factory after the fall of Charles I) during the Commonwealth and acquired by the Swede, Count Johan Oxenstierna, who presented them as a wedding present to Charles X Gustaf in 1654. It is said to be the most valuable gift ever presented to a Swedish king by one of his subjects.
The motif is that of the mythological Greek love story of Hero and Leander.
The room was much more lavishly furnished originally with oriental carpets, Baroque period armchairs and a set of Baroque style armchairs made for the Swedish Pavilion at the World Fair in Chicago in 1893. The room is also furnished with Baroque period Boulle furniture.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEOnfnTJuui/
Agi Lindegren designed the imposing decoration with the Swedish coat of arms above the fireplace. It is in fact copied from an original in a room on the floor below.
The Mortlake tapestries were restored after found in storage in a poor condition. Some pieces were missing which explains that a strip on the tapestry to the left is actually painted. Oscar II had managed to buy back one of the tapestries at an auction in Hamburg and this is what prompted the king to have this room designed to as a suitable background for these rare and fine tapestries.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEOoF0KpH-F/
The ’Porcelain Kitchen’ (Porslinsköket) was designed by the palace architect Agi Lindegren in the 1890s to house Oscar II’s collection of fine Swedish 18th century faience manufactured by Rörstrand and Marieberg factories.
The collection was dispersed during the 19th century and the room became a store room, but in 1998 the room was restored and the collection brought back.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEPNg8JpDBx/
This the plan of the central block of the ground floor at Drottningholm Palace. Visitors enter from the side that faces the Lake Mälaren, through the open loggia into the staircase.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEP7fC0py17/

LadyFinn · Sep 4, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

Drottningholm Palace is built on a slight hill and is one story higher on the side that faces the Lake Mälaren.
The architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder, who built the palace after the fire in 1661 that destroyed the original much smaller house, found that the terrain was only suited for him to build it along the hill which dictated the form it has. Visitors would arrive by boat as there wasn’t a permanent bridge connecting Drottningholm built until the 1780s.
This aerial photo I found on the Internet, shows the palace from the south with the famous Court Theatre (built in 1766) in the background at the top, with the four pavilions built later. Gustaf III’s brothers Carl and Fredric each had one and so did his sister Sophia Albertina. They were only used when they came to visit their brother the king.
Oscar II, when hereditary prince, lived in one with his wife Sophie, until he succeeded his brother Carl XV as king. His son Gustaf (V) was born there in 1858.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEa5A0vJ-1_/
Work with the formal Baroque garden didn’t start until after Nicodemus Tessin the Younger succeed as royal architect after his father’s death in 1681. The Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora had paid for him to travel abroad to study the latest fashion in architecture and garden design so he was well equipped to satisfy his demanding client.
Tessin followed his father’s initial plans based on the gardens at Vaux-le-Vicomte designed by André Le Nôtre in the 1650’s, but he enlarged them in such a way that they are really his own creation. The garden was divided into four sections, with a formal embroidered parterre nearest to the palace (now simplified), followed by the water gardens, and beyond this the cascades and bosquets somewhat higher up, and ending in the large wilderness called the Star. As at Versailles, there was problems supplying water to get the fountains and cascades to work properly.
During the early 19th century the gardens were simplified and the cascades that newer worked were demolished. Efforts to restore the formal Baroque garden to its formal glory began in the beginning of the 20th century, but it wasn’t until the reign of Gustaf VI Adolf in the 1950s and 60s that a thorough restoration took place. As it is today, it follows a plan from 1723, albeit in a simplified form.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEa7zR_J-1o/
A plan of Drottningholm as it is today with the various buildings and places of interest marked.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEbKFiUpmce/
Visitors to Drottningholm arriving by boat are greeted by Adrien de Vries’s sculptures of Neptune.
There were around 30 sculptures by de Vries that were spoils of war taken from from Wallenstein’s Palace in Prague and Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark during the 30-year War in Europe by Swedish troops. The originals were arranged here in the Baroque garden by the architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger.
They were replaced by faithfully cast replicas in the 1990s as the originals had suffered being exposed to the harsh winters outdoor for over 300 years.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEnHZ_wpnIl/
After entering the open loggia at Drottningholm Palace and the walking through the staircase, there is a short colonnaded passage that leads through to the garden terrace overlooking the Baroque Garden. When Tessin designed this, he may have been inspired by Francesco Borromini’s forced perspective dating from the 1630s that he had seen at Palazzo Spada in Rome.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEnfzPIJAW8/
The terrace wall overlooking the park at Drottningholm is decorated with a few smaller sculptures by Adrien de Vries and urns.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEoSKqtJNyO/
In the centre of the Baroque Garden (no. 3 on the plan) stands the Hercules Fountain. Adrien de Vries Hercules fighting the dragon Ladon was looted in 1648 from the garden of Wallenstein’s Palace in Prague, and the sculptures of naiads around the base were taken by Swedish troops in 1659 when they dismantled the Neptune Fountain at Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark.
Nicodemus Tessin the Younger’s composition of the fountain was inspired by the Hercules Fountain in Augsburg (see photo no. 3) that he had seen on his first study trip abroad in 1673. Tessin could have recreated the Neptune fountain from Frederiksborg here at Drottningholm, but that wouldn’t have been desirable as it had been designed as a celebration of King Christian IV of Denmark and his powerful dominance over the Baltic Sea.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEpwnj5pOdC/
There were around 30 sculptures by the celebrated Adrien de Vries placed in the Baroque garden at Drottningholm by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger on the command of Queen Hedvig Eleonora. They were spoils of war taken from from Wallenstein’s Palace in Prague and Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark during the 30-year War in Europe by Swedish troops.
The originals were replaced by faithfully cast replicas in the 1990s as the originals had suffered being exposed to the harsh winters outdoor for over 300 years.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEqNFE7pkyj/
There are also a great number of these urns with plants in the garden at Drottningholm that bears the monogram HERS for the Dowager Queen, Hedvig Eleonora Regina Suecia. It is a reminder to us that it was she who built the magnificent palace and had the splendid Baroque garden created.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEqOhXJJcWU/
The wall with the cascades were demolished in the first half of the 19th century. They never managed to make the cascades working properly because of the problem supplying enough water.
The wall and the cascades were rebuilt when the gardens were restored in the 1950s and 60s during the reign of Gustaf VI Adolf who took great interest in the work.
The palace architect Ivar Tengbom made a simplified version of Nicodemus Tessin’s design (see third photo) echoing the terrace wall on the opposite side.
The cascade walls is placed near the Hercules fountain (no. 3 on the map).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEsK97aJEUL/

LadyFinn · Sep 9, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

The fountain the ‘Crown’ (Kronan) looking towards Flora’s Hill that lies at the end of the formal Baroque garden at Drottningholm.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEutJJmpgXk/
The Sylvan Theatre (Lövteatern) in the garden at Drottningholm was created during the time of King Adolph Fredric and Queen Lovisa Ulrica (1744-71), number 12 on the map. There are several ‘dressing rooms’ for the actors created inside the hedges. Performances are still given here some summers.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEuvA3zpifi/
A statue of Apollo was placed at the end of the stage of the Sylvan Theatre.
This (now a modern cast of the 18th century original), was one of several marble copies of statues from Antiquity ordered by Gustaf III from Bartolomeo Cavaceppi in Rome 1783.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEuwXH9pZxO/
Gustaf III planned several picturesque features in the Landscape garden that he began to plan shortly after he took possession of Drottningholm in 1777. The French architect Louis-Jean Desprez, who Gustaf had met in Rome during his visit there in 1783-84, designed this, the Gothic Tower. It was built in 1792, the year of the King’s assassination, but the interior was never decorated.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEwpsZjpjgx/
When Prince Carl (Gustaf III’s younger brother) acted as regent during the minority of his nephew Gustaf IV Adolph in 1792-96, he had this wooden bathhouse built at Drottningholm. It contained eight separate cabins with basins inside opening into the lake. It is the oldest surviving building of this kind in Sweden.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEwt8EbpXe3/
The formal Baroque garden at Drottningholm was originally walled with ornate gates nearest to the palace. They were made in 1697-99 and the gilt metal work, incorporating the crowned monogram of Queen Hedvig Eleonora HERS, was done by the goldsmith Johan Ulrich Kickow in Stockholm.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CE2etbKp64r/
The Governor’s Villa (Ståthållarvillan), no. 10 on the map, was build in 1786-87 and is attributed to Gustaf III’s architect Olof Tempelman. It is situated at the edge of the Landscape Garden at Drottningholm. It was not an important building, but it was designed to be a decorative feature seen across the park.
The inspector lived downstairs and the vicar of the Lovö Parish (which Drottningholm belongs to) resided upstairs.
In 1816 the downstairs was rebuild as a residence for the Governor of Drottningholm. Today it’s divided into private apartments.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CE4qlC2p2Zt/
The wonderful guard’s building, built by the architect Carl Fredric Adelcrantz for Gustaf III, was designed in 1781 as a Roman, or Tartar, tent, no. 8 on the plan. Adelcrantz copied it directly after a French design by an unknown architect, but reduced it in size. He also added the Swedish coat of arms (instead of the French) and the Wasa dynasty wheat sheaf to the roof. It is unknown if these decorations were ever done.
It is positioned on the approach to the Chinese Pavilion and had lodgings with beds for twelve soldiers downstairs, and rooms for officers upstairs. They were probably only stationed here when the royal family was visiting the Chinese Pavilion.
It is a wooden house, with the front and sides clad with metal shearing painted to imitate striped fabric. The only windows are at the back.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CE4uR8oJYqr/

LadyFinn · Sep 13, 2020

Photos taken on 11th September by photographer Henrik Montgomery, of the royal residence wing of the Drottningholm Palace.
TT Nyhetsbyrån

Photo by Mikael Damkier
https://cdn.elebase.io/173fe953-8a6...--shutterstock_111877811-2000.jpg?w=2000&q=75

Photo by Jonas Borg
https://cdn.elebase.io/173fe953-8a6...hoto-jonas-borg-copy-the-royal-court.jpg?q=75

LadyFinn · Sep 19, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

The present Chinese Pavilion in the park at Drottningholm was built in 1763-69 after a design by the architect Carl Fredric Adelcrantz as a replacement for the small first pavilion from 1753. It is a European Rococo building with Chinese decorations. There were never the ambition at this period in time to create an authentic Chinese building, just an elegant building with Chinese decorations. It was never lived in by the royal family, just intended as place to spend beautiful summers day in private with a selected group of friends and courtiers.
The pavilion is remarkably well preserved since the time of Queen Lovisa Ulrica and has been lovingly restored and maintained over the years. It also became a favourite retreat for Gustaf III who didn’t do any major changes to the the elegant Rococo interiors.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFDazBFJ-er/
Some of the fanciful decorations on the façades of the Chinese Pavilion in the park at Drottningholm designed by Carl Fredric Adelcrantz and built in 1763-69 for Queen Lovisa Ulrica of Sweden and her family.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFKUCcmpy8t/
The designs by Carl Fredric Adelcrantz for the new Chinese Pavilion built in 1763-69 for Queen Lovisa Ulrica in the park at Drottningholm. It isn’t certain who actually produced these watercolours drawings.
The upstairs was reserved for the Queen’s private used, but there was also a small library there where a librarian was on duty during the royal family’s visits.
This elegant set of coloured drawings made c 1770 are now in the ‘Staatliche Kunstbibliothek’, Berlin, as they were most likely given by Queen Lovisa Ulrica to her brother Prince Heinrich of Prussia when he came to visit her in Stockholm, as she was very proud of her new Chinese Pavilion.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFDbp8Vpels/
A map of the Chinese Pavilion and its surrounding buildings. Made during the time of Gustaf III in 1779 by Lars Kökeritz.
1 The Chinese Pavilion (Kina Slott)
2 Pavilion for storing silver table ware, porcelain, etc (Silverkammaren)
3 The Billiards Pavilion
4 King Adolph Fredric’s Pavilion
5 The ‘Confidence’ Dining Pavilion (Confidencen)
6 The kitchen
The Swedish names in brackets.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFKe-TYpJCx/
King Adolph Fredric’s Pavilion built in 1760 by Carl Fredric Adelcrantz is the oldest of the buildings that forms the Chinese Pavilion in the park at Drottningholm. It contained two workshops where the king could do his favourite pastime of woodturning, an anteroom and a room for resting.
There is clock with a bell that chimes every hour.
It has served as a caretaker’s residence since the late 18th century.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFKgFb8pe2-/
King Adolph Fredric’s lathe and tools are preserved and are now exhibited in the former Billiards Pavilion at the Chinese Pavilions. Woodturning was popular amongst royals and aristocrats, even Queen Lovisa Ulrica is said to have enjoyed it! Portrait of the king by Lorentz Pasch the Elder (1733-1805).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFKoOqxpVel/
The Billiards Pavilion where King Adolph Fredric’s wood turning tools and lathe is now on display. Billiards was a very popular pastime in the 18th and 19th centuries and ladies were also keen players.
‘The Billiards Table’ by Thomas Rowlandson, 1840s
‘Ladies playing Billiards’, by Charles-Edouard Boutibonne, 1869.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFKpWCOpsqK/
The ‘Confidence’ (to the right) is a dining room where the dining table and four serving tables are fixed on a lift device. The tables were set on the floor below and on a given signal they were hoisted up through the floor. This meant that the royals and their guests could eat in private without the presence of eavesdropping servants.
Gustaf III has the interior redecorated when the walls were clad with yellow stucco.
The stairs on the drawing were never built. The kitchen was situated in a separate building behind.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFKzJ67J_1c/
The kitchen building at the Chinese Pavilion has survived intact since it was built in the 1760s. Outside is a summer café, famous for its freshly baked waffles, always served with raspberry jam and whipped cream!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFKzsYvJp3A/
The ’Confidence’ Pavilion with the kitchen beyond. Sadly I hear the café in the kitchen, that was opened in 1957, is now closed.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFL6meQJw3g/

LadyFinn · Sep 21, 2020

Photos from the Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

The Marble Hall is not very Chinese in taste, or very Rococo in style. This octagonal room is more Neoclassical with its strict decor, elaborately inlaid marble floor and marble stuccoed walls.
The architect Carl Fredric Adelcrantz was as Royal Superintendent responsible for the building of the Chinese Pavilion, but it is more likely that it was his assistant the architect Jean Eric Rehn who designed the interiors.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFNiKCypTcb/
The Red Cabinet (no. 2 on the plan) is the only room in the pavilion trying to emulate a genuine Chinese interior. The designer Jean Eric Rehn was influenced from designs published by the Scottish-Swedish architect Sir William Chambers in his pattern book ‘Designs of Chinese Buildings, Dresses, Machines, and Utensils.... (London), 1757.
The Chinese lacquer panels made in southern China in the mid-eighteenths century comes from a screen that had been imported to the first Chinese Pavilion. These lacquer screens were a novelty i Europe as no equivalent works excised here. The two round over door paintings were painted by a Swedish artist.
The Japanese lacquer cabinet is a rare example of imported furniture at this time.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFSPivTpZAD/
There are four elaborately carved and gilded Rococo corner console tables in the pavilion made by an unknown master craftsman in the mid-eighteenths century.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFSQxroJq3C/
A wonderfully elegant ormolu chandelier, most probably Swedish c 1760 hangs in the Red Cabinet.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFShjoJJbgC/
This stool, one of a series made especially for the Chinese Pavilion, are of a early Neoclassical style.
It seems that the designer, probably Jean Eric Rehn, thought these black and giltwood stools were suitable in a Chinese style room.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFSknJiJ0MF/
A Chinese glass painting is fitted in at the top of of a mirror in the Ted Cabinet in the Chinese Pavilion.
Painting on glass was not a Chinese tradition, but the Europeans sent out sheets of glass to China, and the artists painted the motif in reverse on the back.
When they arrived in Europe the back of the glass was coated with a mixture of tin and mercury to turn it into a mirror.
Needless to say, these Chinese painted mirrors were very expensive to make and very exclusive. Not many have survived till today.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFSlz0xpQcD/
The Yellow Gallery is one of two curving galleries that connects the main building to the end pavilions.
Sadly missing are the original wall paintings of landscapes, but they would have been painted in the same style as the paintings above the doors.
The original Rococo benches that gently curves following the walls, are still here.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFStJDrJs5N/
The Green Salon (no. 4 on the plan) is a very airy and light filled room with windows on three sides.
The walls are most likely painted by the artist Johan Pasch (1706-69) after engravings by François Boucher. The motifs are typical for the eighteenths century’s romantic vision of life in China. It has a floor laid with Swedish limestone in two colours.
It is interesting to note that the reconstructed curtains and roller blinds are blue in contrast to the green walls. Most rooms have only roller blinds, often in a contrasting colour to the rest of the room.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFTy-aAJk2M/
The elegant Mirror Salon (no. 5 on the plan)!is the room in the Pavilion with the least Chinese flavour. The original furniture is missing, but a set of Gustavian chairs that belonged to Gustaf III covered with an eighteenths century hand painted silk are placed in here.
The French rock crystal chandelier made c 1700 was brought over from Drottningholm Palace in the 1760s when the pavilion was being furnished.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFUr47EJWis/
One of a set of wonderful Rococo console tables in the Chinese Pavilion made by Johan Ljung in Stockholm c 1760.
The blue and white early 18th century urn is part of the large collection of Chinese porcelain that belonged to Queen Hedvig Eleonora (1636-1715).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFUtyKJpf8c/
A close up of the ‘Chinese’ style decorations in the Mirror Salon. The carved dragons are gilded in two colours of gold. Chinese dragons newer had wings though....
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFVLb9CJbdL/
One of the three overdoor decorations in the Mirror Salon painted with Chinese scenery by a Swedish artist, probably Johan Pasch.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFVMYUxpUTO/

LadyFinn · Sep 24, 2020

Photos from Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

The Bedroom in the Chinese Pavilion never had a bed as Queen Lovisa Ulrica and her family never spend the night here. The queen did retire here to have a rest and maybe an afternoon nap in the small sofa. Her husband had his room for resting in his own pavilion.
This interior is very well preserved with the original fabric decorated with silver braid on the walls. The colour scheme of cerise, green and silver, is similar to interiors decorated in Germany at this time.
This room is also the only room in the pavilion that had proper curtains, which had survived in good condition, but for some reason they were used to upholster the furniture during the major restoration in the 1960. Silk moire is easy to buy, so it is a shame that they couldn’t have preserved the curtains as they were, or that they haven’t replaced them now.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFWXBV0JcvU/
The small but elegant Rococo sofa in the bedroom.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFWX7WKJDoY/
A Japanese lacquer cabinet on an elegant Swedish Rococo giltwood stand, possibly designed by Jean Eric Rehn, is found in the Bedroom.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFXXH2CJj5w/
The Embroidered Room (room no. 7) in the Chinese Pavilion was decorated as Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s study, but also came to be used for conversation and reading loud. According to tradition, the Queen herself and her ladies in waiting embroidered the wall panels. The embroideries were cleaned and transferred to a new white silk panels during the major restoration of the building in the 1960s.
The Chinese blue and white early 17th century urns are thought to have belonged to Queen Christina.
A set of ‘Blanc de Chine’ porcelain dolls on consoles around the room, dates from the late 17th century and comes from the extensive collection that belonged to Queen Hedvig Eleonora.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFaWMDvp2Lw/
A set of painted Chinese glass panels have been fitted into the panelling around the over mantle mirror in the Embroidered Room.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFaWk8BJUaA/
The silk covering the giltwood Rococo chairs was hand painted in the 1960s after a piece of 18th century Chinese silk found in the Royal Collections.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFaXXmIpUoA/
The Yellow Cabinet (no. 8) is a pendant to the Red Cabinet (no. 2) on the opposite side of the Marble Hall.
An attempt was made to decorate these rooms in a more authentic Chinese style than the others. Both have imported mid-18th century Chinese lacquer panels on the walls. Below are eleven tablets with Chinese inscriptions, but they are not possible to read as they have been painted in Sweden and doesn’t make any sense, their purpose is just to be decorative.
The ones above are painted with motifs after William Chambers’s published illustrations.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFcVK-2JrA-/
The three paintings with Chinese’s motifs above the doors are probably painted by Johan Pasch after engravings by François Boucher.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFcVmffpc5M/
One of a pair of Chinese urns with kids from the first half of the 17th century that comes from the large collection of Chinese porcelain that belonged to Queen Hedvig Eleonora of Sweden (1636-1715).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFcWFYqpvnT/
One of the elegant stools especially made for the Chinese Pavilion that are very early examples of Neoclassical furniture in Sweden.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFcWqPHJX5Y/
The Blue Salon (no. 10 on the plan) designed by Jean Eric Rehn as a pendant to the Green Salon (no. 4) on the opposite side.
The walls are painted with small scenes of outdoor pursuits by Chinese people. They are probably painted by Johan Pasch after engravings by the French artists Watteau and Boucher.
This room served as the dining room in the pavilion and it originally had a limestone floor with an oriental carpet on the floor. It is listed as ‘Turkish’ in the inventory, but it might just as well have been Persian. Imported oriental carpets were rare (and expensive) at this time in Sweden.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFfWP4HJFJR/
An interesting detail in the Blue Salon is the mirror above the fireplace. The carved branch with flowers looks almost Art Nouveau in my opinion, most unusual for the Rococo of the 1760s.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFfXaiFpRSP/
The dining chairs in the Blue Salon were painted black to imitate Chinese lacquer. This model was very popular (inspired by English and Dutch chairs) and made in great numbers in the mid- to late eighteenth century with slight variations. In the Rococo period they were usually painted grey or yellow, in the Gustavian period, the legs were turned straight, and were sometimes painted to imitated mahogany, a wood which by then had become popular in Sweden.
It wasn’t until the late 19th century during the Victorian era that they started to paint these chairs black to make them look in the Baroque style which was the fashion then.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFffHd7Jn7B/
I forgot to post this photo of one of the painted canvas panels in the Green Salon.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFff8uvpiZe/

LadyFinn · Sep 27, 2020

Photos from Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

The Octagon Salon (no. 1 on the plan) is the central room on the first floor of the Chinese Pavilion. From here you have a splendid view of the surrounding area and access to a balcony as well as the other rooms in this floor.
The hand painted Chinese silk on the walls is the original that was made for the European market in the early 1760s. It is remarkably well preserved, but faded. When the room was restored they could see the original colours and hand the new fabric for the chairs painted like it. The tiles stove is most likely to have been made by the Rörstrand factory in Stockholm.
This room has an amazing echo sound if you talk in here, or even just walk around on the parquet floors. It must be thanks to the vaulted ceiling.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFg38KupVzx/
The rooms upstairs are typical Swedish with their panelling and tiled stoves. Only the textiles or the wallpapers are Chinese, as are the decorative objects.
Gustaf III used the Oval Salon (no. 2) as his study and brought the French Louis XVI secretaire here that he could sit and work at.
The present wall covering is a silk fabric, hand painted in 1907 after an eighteenths century piece in the Royal Collection.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFksRJZpcOx/
Gustaf III purchased eighteen English mahogany Chippendale chairs, made in the 1770s, to use as dining chairs in the Blue Salon after he took possession of Drottningholm and the Chinese Pavilion. They are now placed in the Oval Salon.
When Gustaf III had his pavilion at Haga built and decorated in the late 1780s, he had a set of grey painted chairs inspired by Chippendale made for his dining room there.
They are an interesting and unique hybrid of a simplified version of a Chippendale design and a traditional Gustavian chair.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFk1WP6pJGm/
A pair of Swedish pedestals in the Oval Salon are inspired by an engraving of a genuine Chinese piece published by Sir William Chambers. Chippendale also produced similar pieces of furniture in England.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFk3J3IpItv/
A set of twelve charming Chinese paintings on glass of ladies playing various musical instruments hangs on the walls in the Oval Salon.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFk6x-CpRUK/
When the Library in the Chinese Pavilion was restored in the 1960s the original wall covering of pink rice paper was found underneath a late 19th century paper. It miraculously had imprints preserved that showed where all the small giltwood consoles supporting Chinese figures had been. This made it possible to put all the consoles and figures back where they had been in the 18th century.
It was a functional library with around 700 books (now about 550). There is mostly French literature brought here by Gustaf III. During his time there was a book catalogue o the collection in the Red Cabinet (on the floor below). It was possible to borrow books for the day after submitting a written request to the resident librarian.
The Swedish made bookcase, decorated in Chinese style black lacquer, is in fact two pieces of furniture. The lower section is a desk that can be separated and a practical writing slide can be pulled out.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFl7qiDJOct/
The Cabinet Antechamber (Room no. 4) is quiet a dark room with only one small north facing window. The original hand painted Chinese wallpaper imported in the 1760 is very well preserved.
In the corner, next to the tiles stove, there is a jib-door that conceals a ‘chaise percée’, or close stool. This example is a giltwood Gustavian armchair, upholstered with a blue silk damask, with a loose seat that hides a chamber pot.
At the time of Gustaf III in the late 18th century there were three such chairs hidden away for the royals to use and a further five, presumably for the visitors, down in the basement.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFnlAsTpiZZ/
The Yellow Cabinet (no. 5) is the last and the smallest room in the Chinese Pavilion. It still has its original hand painted Chinese silk from the 1760s covering the walls.
It has faded a bit, but is sill in a remarkable condition. When the pavilion was restored in the 1960s the discovered the original much brighter colours behind the gilt mouldings surround it. The two chairs were recovered with a new silk copied after the old, but painted in the brighter original colours.
The round black lacquered table is made in China for the European market and the barometer was made in Stockholm in the 1750s.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFnmPdxpXn-/
A theatrical view of the Chinese Pavilion in the park at Drottningholm Palace by Louis-Jean Desprez (1743-1804).
Gustaf III had taken over Drottningholm with the Chinese Pavilion from his mother Queen Lovisa Ulrica in 1777. He had spent many idyllic summer days there with his family as a child and continued to do so as a the proprietor.
He had met the French architect Louis-Jean Desprez in Rome during his Italian trip 1783-84 and hired him to come to Stockholm to work as a stage designer. The king soon commissioned him for other projects as well, especially for his planned palace at Haga, but also for Drottningholm and the Chinese Pavilion.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFokXXnpjAl/

LadyFinn · Oct 7, 2020

Photos from Instagram of Håkan Groth, antique dealer, writer, photographer and author of Neoclassicism in the North.

The Drottningholm Court Theatre was built in 1764-66 by the architect and superintendent Baron Carl Fredric Adelcrantz for Queen Lovisa Ulrica and King Adolph Fredric. It was the third theatre built at Drottningholm for the Queen, and the second on this place (the previous having burnt down in a dramatic fire). It was completed in time for the festivities celebrating the marriage of Crown Prince Gustaf (III) to the Danish Princess Sophia Magdalena, and the first performance took place 9 July 1766.
It was one of the most modern and advanced theatre in Europe and the Queen has hired first class singers and actors from Italy and France to perform here. Many operas had their premiere here before being performed at the opera in Stockholm.
Many performances took place here, but from the 1860s it was only used as a storage. Everything was left to gather dust, but in 1921, it was decided to clean it up and performances occasionally took place here again. The original machinery had survived intact and sets of decorations had been preserved.
Regular performances open to the general public began in 1947 and has continued ever since. The only major changes is that electric light has been restored, and the sets have been replaced with copies of the originals.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CF7Dkf7JtJD/
Adelcrantz designed the interior, but the work was done by the French woodcarver/sculptor Adrien Masreliez. The materials used was, stucco, wood an papier-mâché, painted trompe l’œil to imitate marble and gilding.
The front part of the auditorium was reserved for the king and queen and the senior courtiers. The last section at the back, that could be screened off, was intended for the royal servants that could sit on benches with no back supports. The king and queen had a pair of giltwood armchairs at the front. There were a few chairs directly behind them and benches with backs for the courtiers, but there was a strict protocol regulating who was allowed to sit where.
The stage was the deepest in the country, and being almost 18.5 metres it is still one of the deepest. The floor is sloping slightly towards the front giving the illusion of being even deeper. There are trap doors for disappearing acts, a narrow chariot in the shape of a cloud that can descend onto the stage precariously carrying a singer, a wind machine and a ‘thunder’ machine, both creating illusory noices. Rapid changes of up to six sceneries can take place without lowering the curtain.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CF7NpKWp-iM/
There are two balconies with trellis screens where someone could sit who wanted to watch, but not be seen during a performance. Directly opposite are balconies on either side of the stage. They were for people who wanted to be seen, but to watch, as it would be impossible to see the performance on the stage behind them.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CF7O6Plpzqm/
The curtain at the Drottningholm Court Theatre with Queen Lovisa Ulrica’s floral monogram held in the centre by the goddess Minerva.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CF9390YpGZT/
The elegant simplicity behind the scene at the Drottningholm Court Theatre. There were many rooms both upstairs and downstairs for the the actors and staff, but also rooms for some of the courtiers. There were about 100 to 150 people working in the theatre during the summertime performances in the 18th century.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CF9-KjkJbmA/
The dressing room of the ‘Prima Donna’ at the Drottningholm Court Theatre still has the original hand painted wall paper. The dressing rooms are still used by the performers during the summer seasons at the theatre.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CF9-9ubJBUp/
One of the bedrooms with the original decor from the 1760s with hand painted wall paper. The bed and bedding is also from the period but the bed curtains are new.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CF9_RmKJgXX/
Gustaf III commissioned the French architect Louis-Jean Desprez to design a new foyer to the Drottningholm Court Theatre. It was built in 1791, the last summer the king was alive. It gave the theatre a Neoclassical façade facing the new English Park which had been created on the site of the old malaria infested swamp on the north side of the formal Baroque gardens.
The royal reception rooms were also moved from the opposite side (compare the floor plans) to be adjacent to the new foyer.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGB52hFJC9O/
Sadly the interior of the foyer of the Neoclassical extension to the Drottningholm Court Theatre designed by Louis-Jean Desprez was never completed. It has a balcony for musicians and was originally called the “Sallon pour les Festins et les Ballets”, but from the 19th century it has been known as “Déjeunersalongen” (Salon du Déjeuner).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGB7XJjJfoS/
One of the new royal reception rooms created in 1791 at the Drottningholm Court Theatre. They had very simple decor, but were beautifully furnished with chandeliers, carpets and furniture for each summer season that it was in use.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGB8Bmhpkwe/
The architect and royal superintendent Baron Carl Fredric Adelcrantz (1716-96), who had built the Court Theatre at Drottningholm in 1762-64, was also the director of the theatre and had a large bedroom on the ground floor at his disposal during the summer season.
When Gustaf III relocated the royal reception rooms from the east side to the west side, the decor of his former bedroom was also then dismantled and transferred to the opposite side.
The portrait of Adelcrantz above the mantlepiece was painted by Alexander Roslin.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGB9Qb_pDhG/
On the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s first state visit to Sweden in 1956 (which coincided with the Equestrian Olympic Games held in Stockholm) a gala performance was given at the Drottningholm Court Theatre.
Its first museum director, Professor Agne Beijer, is here seen demonstrating the original machinery (to the left the ‘wind’ machine) of the theatre for Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret and King Gustaf VI Adolf.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGB-n_ZpcaY/
Gustaf III placed a statue of Apollo di Belvedere outside the Court Theatre at Drottningholm Palace. It was one of a number of marble statues the king had purchased in Rome during his Italian trip in 1783-84 to be placed in the gardens at Drottningholm. They have now been replaced by modern copies.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGB_i1eJRA4/

LadyFinn · Oct 11, 2020

LadyFinn · Dec 18, 2020

At the website of the Royal Palaces

Silk cultivation at Drottningholm
During the mid-18th century, Drottningholm Palace was at the centre of intensive efforts to cultivate silk in Sweden. In 1753, Queen Lovisa Ulrika proudly presented the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences with raw silk from hand-raised silkworms.
Silk cultivation at Drottningholm - Kungliga slotten

LadyFinn · Jan 5, 2021

At the website of the Royal Palaces
The Dogs' Drottningholm
Nespelina, Don-Don and Turck are some of the several dogs that have run around in Drottningholm's walk-friendly park. Dogs have long been an important part of royalty's lives. Hedvig Eleonora and her son Karl XI were so fond of their four-legged friends that they let David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl immortalize them. Portraits that adorned the palace's galleries.
Ormholmen, the island is now informally called the dog island, because you have permission to let your dog run around without a leash. At the top of the pavilion there is a wind vane in the shape of a dog, the King's dog Brandie has been as a model of it.
Hundarnas Drottningholm - Kungliga slotten
Translation

Drottningholm Palace and its park in the beginning of January
https://instagram.fiev22-2.fna.fbcd...=423d1b813ba1f08827830bbb7408967b&oe=603E3EC1
https://instagram.fiev22-1.fna.fbcd...=5a6a4b3e32f0827711e8af807f2d927b&oe=603E52D5
https://instagram.fiev22-1.fna.fbcd...=f8bf5cc891a7d9f6378baec44baf99ad&oe=603E5DFE

Photos published yesterday at court Facebook by photographer Yanan Li. Drottningholm Palace in the winter.
https://scontent-hel3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=e2430dd8e936e30b6f211fa81801bb97&oe=603E1050
https://scontent-hel3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=23cadbdb08116b16f9d38fbce81e86db&oe=603CA265
https://scontent-hel3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=539206a8b676fb35a381c7d4980f63b5&oe=603CDEBC
https://scontent-hel3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=c340934d857c93cf459bf0534fdbe4b1&oe=603D7F3F

Video by SPA from Drottningholm Palace Park and fountain, 22nd May 2020.

Drottningholm Palace, Stockholm

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Imperial Majesty

Similar threads