Wertmüller’s Portrait of Henri Bertholet-Campan with the Dog Aline

Magnus OlaussonDirector of Collections and the Swedish National Portrait Gallery

Art Bulletin of

NationalmuseumStockholm

Volume OM

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Items in the Acquisitions section are listedalphabetically by artists’ names, except in the caseof applied arts items, which are listed in order oftheir inventory numbers. Measurements are incentimetres – Height H, Breadth B, Depth D,Length L, Width W, and Diameter Diam.– except for those of drawings and prints, whichare given in millimetres.

Cover IllustrationAlexander Roslin (NTNUÓNTVP), The Artist and hisWife Marie Suzanne Giroust Portraying HenrikWilhelm Peill, NTST. Oil on canvas, NPN ñ VUKR cm.Donated by the Friends of the Nationalmuseum,Sophia Giesecke Fund, Axel Hirsch Fundand Mr Stefan Persson and Mrs Denise Persson.Nationalmuseum, åã TNQNK

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Editorial CommitteeMikael Ahlund, Magdalena Gram, Janna Herder,Helena Kåberg and Magnus Olausson.

PhotographsNatinalmuseum Photographic Studio/LinnAhlgren, Erik Cornelius, Anna Danielsson,Cecilia Heisser, Bodil Karlsson, Per-Åke Persson,Sofia Persson and Hans Thorwid.

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^ÇçäÑ räêáâ tÉêíãΩääÉê (NTRNÓNUNN) had trained under his secondcousin Alexander Roslin in Paris and stud-ied at the French Academy in Rome. Re-turning to the French capital in the springof NTUN, he found commissions difficult tocome by and made a living as a copyist inRoslin’s studio instead. Here he was discov-ered by the Swedish ambassador Gustaf Fil-ip Creutz, who placed several importantcommissions with him. As a result, theyoung artist also attracted the interest ofGustav III. Just before his departure fromParis after a month-long stay in the sum-mer of NTUQ, the Swedish king managed topersuade Queen Marie-Antoinette to haveWertmüller paint her portrait as a gift tohim.

Gustav had intended this to be Wert-müller’s ticket to a successful career inParis. At first, all seemed to go well. A fewweeks after the king’s return home, Wert-müller was elected a member of the FrenchRoyal Academy of Painting and Sculpture,giving him a kind of formal accreditation.Shortly afterwards, he painted the queen

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Wertmüller’s Portrait of Henri Bertholet-Campan with the Dog Aline

Magnus OlaussonDirector of Collections and the Swedish National Portrait Gallery

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

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume OM OMNP

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Wertmüller, quite understandably, wentinto a deep depression, but after a whilewas able to summon up the strength tomake the necessary adjustments before theportrait was sent to Sweden the followingyear. The person who came to Wert-müller’s aid was his friend Henriette Genet-Campan, and it was largely thanks to herthat he got paid at all. Mme Campan was alady-in-waiting to the queen and closely ac-quainted with the private royal finances,having charge of Marie-Antoinette’s privypurse. She defended Wertmüller to thequeen on several occasions, including inAugust NTUS. It was Mme Campan, there-fore, who suggested the fee the artistshould ask, and also the point in time atwhich he should submit his account. As aprecaution, a mutual friend, Gabriel Lind-blom, acted as an intermediary between thetwo. Lindblom had been a tutor to MmeCampan’s younger brother Edmond Genetand now served as an interpreter at the

French Foreign Ministry at Versailles. Thisexplains both why Wertmüller was so wellinformed and how he came to paint almosta dozen portraits of various members of theGenet-Campan family.

In gratitude to his friend Mme Cam-pan, Wertmüller painted a portrait of herO-year-old son Henri Bertholet-Campan(NTUQÓNUON). This was in the autumn ofNTUS, when the large portrait of the queenhad been completed and shipped to Swe-den. The painting shows the little boy to-gether with the dog Aline in the Englishlandscape garden at the family’s summerretreat at Croissy, outside Paris (Fig. N). Itwas exhibited at the Salon of NTUT, butwith the somewhat anonymous title A ChildPlaying with a Dog. Perhaps this was out ofdiscretion, to avoid spelling out too clearlyhow well acquainted Wertmüller was withone of the queen’s closest confidantes. Lat-er, he would also paint Mme Campan’sbrother Edmond Genet, and their sisterAdélaïde Auguié. The latter, also a lady-in-waiting to Marie-Antoinette, was portrayedas a dairymaid in the royal dairy at PetitTrianon-Le Hameau. That picture waspainted in NTUT and has been in the Na-tionalmuseum’s collections since NVRN, agift from the Friends of the Nationalmuse-um (Fig. O). Since then, a preliminarystudy for the portrait of the Frenchdauphin Louis has also been acquired (Fig.P). With this latest acquisition, anotherpiece can be added to the fascinating storyof the origins of Wertmüller’s portrait ofQueen Marie-Antoinette.

and her daughter, Madame Royale, at thePetit Trianon, while the dauphin sat forhim at the Château de la Muette near Paris.At the Louvre, Wertmüller was able to bor-row Jacques-Louis David’s studio to workon his large portrait of the queen, as Davidwas in Rome. The artist went about his taskmost methodically, leaving nothing tochance. He even had Marie-Antoinette’swigmaker Monsieur Léonard produce acoiffure of the type she wore, to ensure thatevery detail was correct. Meanwhile, therewas growing envy among the French artisticestablishment. In the eyes of his competi-tors, giving a young Swedish artist a com-mission as prestigious as painting thequeen’s portrait was little short of treason.When the portrait of Marie-Antoinettewent on show on OQ August NTUR, it was im-mediately slated by the critics. The queenwas not happy with it either, and reportedlyexclaimed, “Quoi! C’est moi là?” (“What! Isthat supposed to be me?”).

Fig. O Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller (NTRNÓNUNN),Adélaïde Auguié as a Dairymaid in the Royal Dairy atPetit Trianon-Le Hameau, NTUT. Oil on canvas,NNTKR ñ UVKR cm. Donated by the Friends of theNationalmuseum. Nationalmuseum, åã QUUNK

Fig. P Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller (NTRNÓNUNN),Portrait of the French Dauphin Louis ENTUNÓNTUVFINTUQK Oil on canvas, QSKR ñ PU cm. Purchase:Hedda and N. D. Qvist Fund.Nationalmuseum, åã TMRMK

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume OM OMNP