Högre seminariet i Konstvetenskap
Institutionen för kultur och estetik, Stockholms universitet
Onsdagen den 27 maj kl. 13-15. Lokal: 509
Forskningspresentation
Kjell Wangensteen: A Question of Style and Origin. David
Klöcker Ehrenstrahl at the Swedish Court, 1661-1698
This paper explores a unique moment in the history of Baroque art when the newlypowerful Swedish court purposely sought to "rebrand" itself by means of the latest
continental fashions and styles. The process of assimilating these influences was hardly
straightforward, however. The career of the Hamburg-born David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl
exemplifies these complexities in fascinating ways, ranging from his bitter competition in
1661 for the position of Swedish court painter to the completion of his grand allegorical
series at Drottningholm. Paradoxically (and perhaps unintentionally), a kind of Swedish
"national" identity emerged in the work of an artist who was born and trained well beyond
its borders.
Kjell Wangensteen is guest resercher in Art History at the Department of Culture and
Aesthetics. He is a Ph.D. candidate in art history at Princeton University and is currently the
Theodore Rousseau Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl, Self-Portrait, 1691