Wertmüller’s Portrait of Henri Bertholet-Campan with the Dog Aline
Magnus Olausson
Director of Collections and the Swedish National Portrait Gallery
Art Bulletin of
Nationalmuseum
Stockholm
Volume OM
Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm,
is published with generous support from the
Friends of the Nationalmuseum.
The Nationalmuseum collaborates with
Svenska Dagbladet, Fältman & Malmén
and Grand Hôtel Stockholm.
Items in the Acquisitions section are listed
alphabetically by artists’ names, except in the case
of applied arts items, which are listed in order of
their inventory numbers. Measurements are in
centimetres – Height H, Breadth B, Depth D,
Length L, Width W, and Diameter Diam.
– except for those of drawings and prints, which
are given in millimetres.
Cover Illustration
Alexander Roslin (NTNUÓNTVP), The Artist and his
Wife Marie Suzanne Giroust Portraying Henrik
Wilhelm Peill, NTST. Oil on canvas, NPN ñ VUKR cm.
Donated by the Friends of the Nationalmuseum,
Sophia Giesecke Fund, Axel Hirsch Fund
and Mr Stefan Persson and Mrs Denise Persson.
Nationalmuseum, åã TNQNK
Publisher
Magdalena Gram
Editor
Janna Herder
Editorial Committee
Mikael Ahlund, Magdalena Gram, Janna Herder,
Helena Kåberg and Magnus Olausson.
Photographs
Natinalmuseum Photographic Studio/Linn
Ahlgren, Erik Cornelius, Anna Danielsson,
Cecilia Heisser, Bodil Karlsson, Per-Åke Persson,
Sofia Persson and Hans Thorwid.
Picture Editor
Rikard Nordström
Photo Credits
© Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig
(p. NQ)
© The Gothenburg Museum of Art/Hossein
Sehatlou (p. NU)
© Malmö Art Museum/Andreas Rasmusson
(p. OO)
© Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York (p. OV)
© RMN Grand Palais/Musée du Louvre,
Paris/Hervé Lewandowski (p. PMF
© The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
(Fig. QI p. PN)
© RMN Grand Palais/Musée du Louvre,
Paris/René-Gabriel Ojéda (Fig. RI p. PN)
© Guilhem Scherf (p. PO)
© Bridgeman/Institute of Arts, Detroit (p. PP)
© Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris/Jean Tholance
(p. PQ)
© RMN Grand Palais/Musée du Louvre, Paris
(p. PR)
© Accademia Nazionale di San Luca,
Rome/Mauro Coen (Figs, SI NM and NO,
pp. NNQÓNNS)
© Mikael Traung (Fig. T, p. NNQ)
© Stockholm City Museum (p. NOP)
http://www.stockholmskallan.se/Soksida/Post/?n
id=319
© Stockholm City Museum/Lennart af
Petersens (p. NOQ)
© http://www.genealogi.se/component/
mtree/soedermanland/eskilstuna/
a_zetherstroem_/22850?Itemid=604 (p. NOR)
© http://www.genealogi.se/component/
mtree/bohuslaen/marstrand/robert-dahlloefsatelier/22851?Itemid=604 (p. NOT)
Every effort has been made by the publisher to
credit organizations and individuals with regard
to the supply of photographs. Please notify the
publisher regarding corrections.
Graphic Design
BIGG
Layout
Agneta Bervokk
Translation and Language Editing
Gabriella Berggren and Martin Naylor.
Publications
Ingrid Lindell (Publications Manager),
Janna Herder (Editor).
Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum is published
annually and contains articles on the history
and theory of art relating to the collections of
the Nationalmuseum.
Nationalmuseum
Box NSNTS
ëÉÓNMP OQ Stockholm, Sweden
www.nationalmuseum.se
© Nationalmuseum and the authors
ISSN OMMNJVOPU
~ÅèìáëáíáçåëLïÉêíãΩääÉêÛë éçêíê~áí
Wertmüller’s Portrait of Henri Bertholet-Campan with the Dog Aline
Magnus Olausson
Director of Collections and the Swedish National Portrait Gallery
^ÇçäÑ räêáâ tÉêíãΩääÉê (NTRNÓ
NUNN) had trained under his second
cousin Alexander Roslin in Paris and studied at the French Academy in Rome. Returning to the French capital in the spring
of NTUN, he found commissions difficult to
come by and made a living as a copyist in
Roslin’s studio instead. Here he was discovered by the Swedish ambassador Gustaf Filip Creutz, who placed several important
commissions with him. As a result, the
young artist also attracted the interest of
Gustav III. Just before his departure from
Paris after a month-long stay in the summer of NTUQ, the Swedish king managed to
persuade Queen Marie-Antoinette to have
Wertmüller paint her portrait as a gift to
him.
Gustav had intended this to be Wertmüller’s ticket to a successful career in
Paris. At first, all seemed to go well. A few
weeks after the king’s return home, Wertmüller was elected a member of the French
Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture,
giving him a kind of formal accreditation.
Shortly afterwards, he painted the queen
Fig. N Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller (NTRNÓNUNN),
Portrait of Henri Bertholet-Campan (NTUQÓNUON)
as a Child, with the Dog Aline, NTUS.
Oil on canvas, NMM ñ UNKR cm.
Purchase: Hedda and N. D. Qvist Fund.
Nationalmuseum, åã TNPPK
NV
Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume OM OMNP
~ÅèìáëáíáçåëLïÉêíãΩääÉêÛë éçêíê~áí
Fig. O Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller (NTRNÓNUNN),
Adélaïde Auguié as a Dairymaid in the Royal Dairy at
Petit Trianon-Le Hameau, NTUT. Oil on canvas,
NNTKR ñ UVKR cm. Donated by the Friends of the
Nationalmuseum. Nationalmuseum, åã QUUNK
Fig. P Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller (NTRNÓNUNN),
Portrait of the French Dauphin Louis ENTUNÓNTUVFI
NTUQK Oil on canvas, QSKR ñ PU cm. Purchase:
Hedda and N. D. Qvist Fund.
Nationalmuseum, åã TMRMK
and her daughter, Madame Royale, at the
Petit Trianon, while the dauphin sat for
him at the Château de la Muette near Paris.
At the Louvre, Wertmüller was able to borrow Jacques-Louis David’s studio to work
on his large portrait of the queen, as David
was in Rome. The artist went about his task
most methodically, leaving nothing to
chance. He even had Marie-Antoinette’s
wigmaker Monsieur Léonard produce a
coiffure of the type she wore, to ensure that
every detail was correct. Meanwhile, there
was growing envy among the French artistic
establishment. In the eyes of his competitors, giving a young Swedish artist a commission as prestigious as painting the
queen’s portrait was little short of treason.
When the portrait of Marie-Antoinette
went on show on OQ August NTUR, it was immediately slated by the critics. The queen
was not happy with it either, and reportedly
exclaimed, “Quoi! C’est moi là?” (“What! Is
that supposed to be me?”).
Wertmüller, quite understandably, went
into a deep depression, but after a while
was able to summon up the strength to
make the necessary adjustments before the
portrait was sent to Sweden the following
year. The person who came to Wertmüller’s aid was his friend Henriette GenetCampan, and it was largely thanks to her
that he got paid at all. Mme Campan was a
lady-in-waiting to the queen and closely acquainted with the private royal finances,
having charge of Marie-Antoinette’s privy
purse. She defended Wertmüller to the
queen on several occasions, including in
August NTUS. It was Mme Campan, therefore, who suggested the fee the artist
should ask, and also the point in time at
which he should submit his account. As a
precaution, a mutual friend, Gabriel Lindblom, acted as an intermediary between the
two. Lindblom had been a tutor to Mme
Campan’s younger brother Edmond Genet
and now served as an interpreter at the
Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume OM OMNP
OM
French Foreign Ministry at Versailles. This
explains both why Wertmüller was so well
informed and how he came to paint almost
a dozen portraits of various members of the
Genet-Campan family.
In gratitude to his friend Mme Campan, Wertmüller painted a portrait of her
O-year-old son Henri Bertholet-Campan
(NTUQÓNUON). This was in the autumn of
NTUS, when the large portrait of the queen
had been completed and shipped to Sweden. The painting shows the little boy together with the dog Aline in the English
landscape garden at the family’s summer
retreat at Croissy, outside Paris (Fig. N). It
was exhibited at the Salon of NTUT, but
with the somewhat anonymous title A Child
Playing with a Dog. Perhaps this was out of
discretion, to avoid spelling out too clearly
how well acquainted Wertmüller was with
one of the queen’s closest confidantes. Later, he would also paint Mme Campan’s
brother Edmond Genet, and their sister
Adélaïde Auguié. The latter, also a lady-inwaiting to Marie-Antoinette, was portrayed
as a dairymaid in the royal dairy at Petit
Trianon-Le Hameau. That picture was
painted in NTUT and has been in the Nationalmuseum’s collections since NVRN, a
gift from the Friends of the Nationalmuseum (Fig. O). Since then, a preliminary
study for the portrait of the French
dauphin Louis has also been acquired (Fig.
P). With this latest acquisition, another
piece can be added to the fascinating story
of the origins of Wertmüller’s portrait of
Queen Marie-Antoinette.