Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden

The National Museum is a Swedish state central museum in Stockholm and Sweden’s largest art museum. The collections consist of painting, sculpture and art on paper from around the 16th century to the 20th century, as well as art and design objects from the 16th century to the present. The total number of objects amounts to approximately 700,000. The museum is located at Blasieholmen in Stockholm, in a building designed for the purpose by the German architect Friedrich August Stüler. The building was completed in 1866 but the museum’s history is older than that and goes back to June 28, 1792 when the Royal Museuminstituted. The National Museum is thus one of Europe’s oldest art museums.

The collections were moved to Blasieholmen after previously, to some extent, being stored in the Royal Museum, which opened in 1794 in the northern logyard wing of the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Like many other national art museums, the collections are to a significant extent based on generations of royal collections, which for various reasons have become state-owned. For example, works belonging to Gustav Vasa can be seen at the National Museum.

The museum’s activities also extend outside the building at Blasieholmen. For example, the National Museum belongs to the Swedish State’s portrait collection, which is on display at Gripsholm Castle. An extensive deposit business from the museum holds several authorities and institutions with art. In addition, items from the museum’s collections are displayed at a number of other museum institutions around the country. The superintendent and head of the National Museum is Susanna Pettersson and the number of employees is about 150.

History
The museum’s benefactors include King Gustav III and Carl Gustaf Tessin. The museum was founded in 1792 as Kungliga Museet (“Royal Museum”). The present building was opened in 1866, when it was renamed the Nationalmuseum, and used as one of the buildings to hold the 1866 General Industrial Exposition of Stockholm.

The current building, built between 1844 and 1866, was inspired by North Italian Renaissance architecture. It is the design of the German architect Friedrich August Stüler, who also designed the Neues Museum in Berlin. The relatively closed exterior, save for the central entrance, gives no hint of the spacious interior dominated by the huge flight of stairs leading up to the topmost galleries.

The museum was enlarged in 1961 to accommodate the museum workshops. The present restaurant was instated in 1996. The museum building closed for renovation in 2013 and reopened on 13 October 2018. The $132 million overhaul sought to put more of the museum’s collection on display and to match the security, accessibility, fire safety and climate control of a modern institution.

Collections
Nationalmuseum is a Swedish state central museum in Stockholm and Sweden’s largest art museum. The collections consist of painting, sculpture and art on paper from the 16th century to the 20th century, as well as of artwork and design items from the 16th century to the present. The total number of objects amounts to approximately 600,000. The museum is located at Blasieholmen in Stockholm, in a building designed for the purpose of German architect Friedrich August Stüler. The building was completed in 1866 but the history of the museum is older than that and dates back to 28 June 1792 when the Royal Museum was established. The National Museum is thus one of Europe’s oldest art museums.

The collections were moved to Blasieholmen after earlier, in some parts, were kept in the Royal Museum, which opened in 1794 in the northern logs wing at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Like many other national art museums, collections are a significant part of generations of royal collections, which for various reasons have been transferred to state ownership. For example, works belonging to Gustav Vasa can be seen at the National Museum.

Paintings and sculpture
The Nationalmuseum collections of paintings and sculptures comprise some 16,000 works. Artists such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya, Renoir, Degas and Gauguin are represented, as are the Swedish artists Carl Larsson, Ernst Josephson, Carl Fredrik Hill and Anders Zorn. The collection includes art from the late Middle Ages up to the beginning of the 20th century, with the emphasis on Swedish 18th and 19th century painting. Dutch painting from the 17th century is also well represented, and the French 18th century collection is regarded as one of the best in the world.

Design and Applied Arts
The museum’s collection of applied art, design and industrial design spans over a long period, from the 14th century to today. It consists of ca. 30,000 objects of which a third are ceramics and thereafter, in order of numbers, textiles, glass, precious and non-precious metals, furniture, books etc. Form and artistic value are the basic criteria for museum acquisitions. Pieces from Sweden and the other Nordic countries are given priority, but even other countries are represented, especially those that have been significant for design development.

Prints and drawings
The collection of Prints and Drawings comprises about 500,000 items from late medieval times up to the year 1900. Central to the collections are in excess of 2,000 master drawings that Carl Gustaf Tessin acquired during his tour of duty as Sweden’s ambassador to France. Of particular importance are collections of works by Rembrandt, Watteau, Edouard Manet, Johan Tobias Sergel, Carl Larsson, Carl Fredrik Hill and Ernst Josephson.

National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Castles Collections
From the beginning the Royal Castles Collections consisted, as appears from the name, of the parts of the art collections of the royal pleasure-palaces which were owned by the State. Today the Royal Castles Collections at the Nationalmuseum administer the majority of the paintings, drawings, engravings, and sculptures existing in five of the royal pleasure-palaces, i.e. Gripsholm, Drottningholm, Stromsholm, Rosersberg and Ulriksdal.The largest collection is the National Portrait Gallery founded in 1822 at the Gripsholm Castle which today includes 4,000 works of art. Gradually, the area of responsibility of the Royal Castles Collections has been extended and now comprises 18 palaces, manors and other units.

The Gustavsberg Porcelain Collection
The Gustavsberg Porcelain Collection consists of approximately 35,000 objects, manufactured at the Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory from the 1830s up until the factory’s closing in 1994.

The current building, built between 1844 and 1866, was inspired by North Italian Renaissance architecture. It is the design of the German architect Friedrich August Stüler, who also designed the Neues Museum in Berlin. The relatively closed exterior, save for the central entrance, gives no hint of the spacious interior dominated by the huge flight of stairs leading up to the topmost galleries. The museum was enlarged in 1961 to accommodate the museum workshops.

Collection history

The rise of collections
A large number of works in the museum’s collections come from many generations of royal collections. From Gustav Vasa’s painting gallery at Gripsholm Castle, it has been possible to identify with a few certainties a few paintings that can be found in the National Museum today. Gustav Vasa’s collection consisted mainly of Northern European painting.

Of the works with a past in royal ownership, many have been acquired in the light of various personal preferences, but here are also several examples of objects that came to the royal collections as a war robber in the 1600s.

Munich robbery
In May 1632, Swedish troops entered Munich, where King Gustav II Adolf progressed hard in the collections of the Elector Maximilian I. An explanation has been sought for the decision in a personal enmity between the two and in that Maximilian was a prominent Catholic. With the Munich robbery came, among other things, three paintings from the famous history cycle with pictures depicting battles during antiquity, added 1533–1557 on the order of Duke William IV of Bavaria. Best known in the suite is Albrecht Altdorfers Alexanderslaget (now in Alte Pinakothekin Munich), which, together with four more paintings, had been evacuated and thus saved the advance of the Swedish troops. In the collections of the National Museum today Ludwig Refinger’s Horatius Cocles halted King Porsena’s here in front of Rome and Manlius Torquatus in a row with a grid and Melchior Feselen’s Julius Cæsar besieges the city of Alesia.

Pragrovet
The Prague mine was more extensive than the Munich mine. At the end of July 1648, during the end of the Thirty Years’ War, a Swedish army under Hans Christoff Königsmarck Lilla took part in Prague and fire-prized churches, monasteries, private palaces and the Prague Castle, which contained remaining parts of Rudolf II ‘s former large collections of art. The Swedes took about 470 paintings, 69 bronze figures and a number of other precise crafts. The wartime included paintings by, among others, Albrecht Dürer, Paolo Veronese and Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Of the sculptures most works byAdriaen de Vries from the Wallenstein Garden. Of the paintings, today there are only 60 pieces in the National Museum’s collection and in the National Portrait Collection. The paintings were scattered quite early, not least through exchanges and gifts to Swedish noblemen and foreign regents. For example, Queen Kristina, who valued Italian painting highly, gave the two paintings by Albrecht Dürer to King Philip IV of Spain, which are now on display at the Prado Museum in Madrid. Most of the sculptures by Adriaen de Vries have remained in Sweden, where the majority of the late 16th century was placed inDrottningholm Castle Park. The original is today at the Museum de Vries and the National Museum.

During the second half of the 17th century, the widow queen Hedvig Eleonora also played an important role. Her desire to manifest the royal house with buildings and art led to the import of art objects and that Swedish-produced art gained a larger market. In particular, David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl should be mentioned. He was a court painter and came to Sweden in the middle of the 17th century. In the National Museum’s painting collection and in the National Portrait Collection, there are numerous examples mainly of his portrait art, but also of his animal painting.

A reason for today’s museum collection
A large part of the works that today are considered to be the core of the National Museum’s collection of pre-1800 paintings are mainly from a few collections: Carl Gustaf Tessins, Queen Lovisa Ulrikas, King Adolf Fredriks and Gustav III’s. However, several of the most significant works in royal collections had been acquired through Tessin in various ways.

In these collections, French, Dutch and Gustavian Swedish painting dominated, which thus greatly influenced the composition of the National Museum’s collection as it appears today. Several of the museum’s works by Rembrandt have been owned by these people, as well as other important works from the 17th century Netherlands and some from the same time Flanders.

Of these four collectors, Carl Gustaf Tessin has undoubtedly been of the greatest importance, not least because much in the collections of Adolf Fredrik and Lovisa Ulrika ended up there through his care. At the age of nineteen Tessin set out on a grand tour during which he stayed in Paris between 1714 and 1716. He would later return in several rounds, but on this first visit he acquired a number of master drawings and 23 so-called contre-épreuves by Antoine Watteau, as well as got to know several of the artists of the time. In 1728, Tessin was back in Paris, now with better financial prospects since he was appointed superintendent in charge of the castle building in Stockholm, inherited his father and married a wealthy heiress. He now acquired paintings by artists such as François Lemoyne, François Desportes, Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Baptiste Pater. Of Watteau, whom he held high, however, he bought nothing. One has seen an explanation for this in that the artist had now passed away and that Tessin concentrated on living artists and that the prices of Watteau’s works became high. The stay in Paris also meant that art was purchased on behalf of the castle building. From Paris he traveled to Venice to try to contract Giovanni Battista Tiepolo to the same, but without success.

In 1739, Tessin was back in Paris, where the art scene behaved differently with the salon restored since 1737. During this visit he focused on François Boucher and Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin and acquired, among other things, Bouchers Venus triumph, which was displayed in the salon in 1740. Tessin also made several purchases of Dutch painting in the Parisian market, mainly through the art dealer Edme – Francois Gersaint. Among the works is Rembrandt’s Portrait of a young woman in profile and Constantin Verhouts Insomnia student. The drawing collection that Tessin acquired is discussed below, in a special section on the museum’s collection of art on paper.

Watteau’s Love Lesson
If something could be considered missing in Tessin and later the museum’s otherwise complete collection of 18th-century French painting, it was Watteau’s oil painting, of which any acquisition thus never became. As late as the 1950s, it would be possible to supplement the collection with a work by the artist. It was about the Love Lesson, which was lent to an exhibition in connection with which they arranged a national gathering in order to pay the approximately SEK 750,000 requested. At this time, the museum’s acquisition grant for the purchase of older painting amounted to SEK 15,000. A fierce debate followed, but eventually they had managed to collect funds so that they were able to pay a bargain price of about SEK 500,000. Subsequently, the collection has been supplemented by another oil painting by Watteau, The Italian Serenade, donated in 1962 by an anonymous donor through the Friends of the National Museum.

The collection of Swedish art
Already during the time of the Royal Museum, there was plenty of Swedish painting from the 18th century in what is now the National Museum’s collection, not least after Gustav III. In addition, there were large numbers of sculptures by Sergel. It was worse off with the contemporary painting, the 19th century painting. The classic direction and years of weak economy had meant poor conditions for this. It was therefore important to acquire works of 19th century art even before the new building was left standing, which is particularly evident in the light of the development from the Royal Museum to a citizen’s National Museum. In 1845, the first purchase of a work by a living artist, Italian bandits abducted some women by Alexander Lauréus. In 1856, the museum was then granted a grant intended for the purchase of modern Swedish art. This was followed by the acquisition of works byJosef Magnus Stäck,Marcus Larson,Amalia LindegrenandCarl Wahlbom.

Prior to the opening of the new building, a public inspection of the state collections was carried out, which was largely in the royal palaces to make the selection that would be displayed in the new museum. For example, the French collection of 18th-century painting had not been shown in the Royal Museum. Now it was brought to the museum building together with, above all, Swedish and Dutch painting, including the coronation of Carl Gustaf Pilos Gustav III. Prior to the opening of the new building, in addition to the mobilization of government works, the museum received several important donations, in several cases of significant works with old Swedish provenance; for example donated the court marshal Martin von Wahrendorffa large number of works – including the Adriaen de Vries Psyke worn by amorins, which came from Prague. King Charles XV donated Ruben’s two paintings with motives freely after Tizian’s Sacrifice to Venus and Bacchanal at Andros. Now the colossal-sized sculptures, Tor, Oden and Balder, were also transmitted by King Karl XIV Johan commissioned by Fogelberg. The Batavian oath of allegiance by Rembrandt was also transferred to the museum as a deposit without time limit (the painting is owned by the Academy of Fine Arts).

wedish 19th-century painting was not found to any great extent in the state collections and was not included in the donations in many cases. Therefore, the available funds were used to purchase such. They primarily bought works by younger artists studying in Paris, Rome and Düsseldorf, such as Johan Fredrik Höckert, Mårten Eskil Winge, Josef Wilhelm Wallander and Alfred Wahlberg. Of very great importance to the Swedish collection would be a somewhat later donation made by Karl XV. At the time of his throne, the king had set up a picture gallery with primarily contemporary Swedish and Nordic painting. The gallery was open to the public a few days a week.

In 1872 most of the collection, about 400 works, was donated to the National Museum. In this way, the museum gained a strong representation of the Nordic painting while at the same time the numerical center of gravity in the Nordic collection was shifted from the sculpture that previously made up a large majority. Among the works, many were painted by artists who have been to Düsseldorf, both from Norway and Sweden. However, the quality of the collection was somewhat uneven, since Karl XV rarely bought paintings to help young artists in development.

The next time would be marked by two perceptions regarding acquisitions – one phalanx advocated history painting and the other was keen that the museum’s acquisitions should reflect the art development. The relationship reflects the contradictions that existed at the Academy of Art at the same time, between the older generation and the younger.

Expansion of Swedish and French 19th century art
The next major acquisition would take place in 1915, when the artist Richard Bergh was the museum’s superintendent. Bergh was concerned by the gaps in the collection that were the result of the poorly coordinated acquisition strategy of the previous decades and had already begun to work to fill them prior to his entry. It was mainly the works of the Opponents that were missing, although some significant works of these were purchased for the collection earlier. Many of the most significant works of the 1880s and 1890s had already been purchased by other museums in the Nordic countries, which is why it was considered urgent. Bergh started an appeal among wealthy art lovers, which resulted in a gift consisting of a large number of works of art and SEK 135,000 to acquire more. The gift was formally handed over at Bergh’s admission and included, among other things, six paintings byCarl Fredrik Hill(of which the museum until now had nothing), twelve works byErnst Josephson, ten byNils Kreugerand five byKarl Nordström. The artwork in the donation today is still an important element of the museum’s collections exhibitions.

Another area Bergh wanted to improve was the 19th century French art. Shortly before, among others, with the help of National Museum friends, had bought works by, among others, Edgar Degas and Alfred Sisley and by Anders Zorn had received Edouard Manets Päronskalaren, but the collection was numerically very modest. Due to the First World War, the Swedish krona was strong and in May 1916 Bergh and Gregor Paulsson left for Berlin to try to buy French art at an auction at Julius Stern’sauction. Most of the works were more expensive than one had hoped for, but they came home with a pastel of Degas and Landscape in Brittany by Paul Cézanne, which was purchased outside the auction (NM 206). In the fall of the same year he acquired with the help of donors including Auguste Renoir’s Conversation and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s Lindanserska.

Carl Larsson’s murals
If royal elements were initially lacking in the embellishments, several more were added when the planned frescoes became a reality. The idea was that the motifs would be of a historical nature, which would not exclude an art-historical dimension – in many cases in the form of various regents made as the protectors of the art. Carl Larsson’s paintings came to be the most prominent of the embellishments in the museum building. In the lower staircase are six frescoes with motifs from Swedish history and art history, respectively. The paintings on the southern wall in the lower staircase are, from left to right Ehrenstrahl painting Karl XI, the castle building with Nicodemus Tessin dy and Carl Hårleman andTaraval Writing School. On the north wall are left to right Lovisa Ulrika and Carl Gustaf Tessin, Gustav III receives antique works of art and Bellman in Sergel’s studio. In the upper staircase Gustav Vasa’s entrance in Stockholm hangs in 1523 and Midvinterblot, both painted in oil on canvas.

Thus, from the very beginning, Stüler had himself considered that the wall panels in the lower and upper stairwells were suitable for pictures with motifs from Swedish history. It was not until 1883 that a contest was announced in which participants would present their proposals in writing. No winners were selected because none of the grants were considered to be good enough. It would take until 1888 before proceeding with the project by announcing a new competition where the participants would instead present their proposals in the form of sketches instead of in writing. Only five artists participated. The winner was Gustaf Cederström with the introduction of Christianity in Sweden by Ansgar. Carl Larsson won the second prize which in the wall fields on one wall of the lower staircase struck at different times in Swedish history and art history, respectively.

However, the museum’s board was not prepared to allow any of the proposals to be realized and the artists were asked to improve them. The criticism of Larsson’s images was, among other things, that they did not think they were monumental enough. Even after the proposals were reworked, they were not approved and once again the competition was announced. A total of four artists participated, one of whom was Georg Pauli. Together with his once revised proposals, Carl Larsson presented Gustav Vasa’s entry in Stockholm in this third round as a proposal for fresco painting in the upper stairwell on the side where the stairs end. It was for the same place as Gustaf Cederströmmade its Ansgar painting. The proposal was especially appreciated by competitor Cederström, who thought that Larsson’s painting was so well suited to the site that he declined the offer to challenge it by reworking his proposal. Several tours followed, but finally Carl Larsson’s proposal for the lower staircase’s wall field was approved in 1895 and 1896. In November 1896 the paintings were completed.

Gustav Vasa’s entry into Stockholm
Although it won the approval, no decision had been made regarding Gustav Vasa’s entry into Stockholm. Despite this, Carl Larsson continued to work on the design. In 1904 he presented on his own initiative a proposal in which, as they have pointed out, he purified the monumentality of the image. After presenting the first proposal, he had traveled to Italy where he certainly had the opportunity to study equestrian statues. Donatello’s Monument to Gattamelata and Paolo Uccello’s Epitaph on Sir John Hawkwood have been pointed out in Florence’s verdict as sources of inspiration.

The monumental character of the painting is reinforced by the fact that its viewers see it above themselves already from the two lower floors. In the autumn of 1905, the Mural Board decided that the project would be realized. The work with the frescoes in the lower staircase had caused Carl Larsson an eye disease and been tiring at all, which is why he suggested that the painting be done on canvas instead. So it was – the work was done on four canvases that were pasted on the wall late in 1907 to be signed by the artist after some retouches on January 28, 1908.

Midwinter blot
Now only one wall field remained, more specifically in the upper stairway opposite Gustav Vasa’s entrance into Stockholm. Carl Larsson had earlier, in connection with the competition to carry out the other murals, proposed a picture depicting Gustav II Adolf for this field (a proposal that Stüler had already put forward). Now, a bit into the 20th century, however, he had abandoned that idea and instead envisioned a king sacrificed for his people, as a contrast to Gustav Vasa who triumphs in a midsummer-adorned scene. The inspiration for the motif, which Carl Larsson called “Midwinter Blot”, he had found with Adam by Bremen and Snorre Sturlasson. Sturlasson writes about KingDomalde who is sacrificed for better harvest after several years of misgrowth and unprofitable sacrifices. In January 1911, Carl Larsson, on his own initiative, presented a first proposal that was displayed at the National Museum, but without any official response from the museum’s board. Elsewhere, the picture reacted negatively, as in Dagens Nyheter where a writer under the signature “Archaeologist” attacked the historically incorrect mixture of props from different centuries.

In the fall of 1913, Carl Larsson presented a reworked version with a more distinct composition and with the inscription “A dream vision. A king is sacrificed for the people ”. The words have been interpreted as a way of presenting critical historians this time. This proposal was also criticized in the press and also this time for the lack of historical authenticity. By the time the committee’s opinion came, a majority had voted for the painting to be carried out, but with the reservation that the core of the motif, that is, the royal sacrifice, would be changed or toned down. However, Carl Larsson was unwilling to make any such changes. The criticism grew and repeated and it was pointed out that the Historical Museumwas housed in the National Museum building, which made the problem of the lack of authenticity particularly serious. Larsson ended the assignment. But despite the setbacks, he continued to work on the painting and in 1915 he presented a sketch that largely corresponds to the finished painting. This time, too, the picture was not adopted. Carl Larsson wrote in his autobiography that “The fate of the midwinter blots broke me! With dull anger I acknowledge this ”.

Subsequently, the painting was shown during various 1900s at various exhibitions and from 1942 it was deposited at the Sketches Museum in Lund. In the early 1980s, the National Museum was offered the opportunity to acquire it again, but it was rejected with the motivation that it would fit better in the Historical Museum. However, it did not end up there, but instead it was sold to a private individual. In 1987 it was sold at auction in London to a Japanese buyer. Ten years later, it was purchased for the museum with the help of National Museum friends and a number of private donors. Since then it hangs on the western wall of the upper stairway.

The consortium trips – innovative business financing
Richard Bergh’s expansion plans for the collection were not matched by the museum’s financial resources and on several occasions he paid with his own funds, pending the museum itself to own funds. In 1917, a wholesaler named Axel Beskow put forward the idea that the museum could cooperate with a number of private collectors. One would venture out into the art market together and make extensive art purchases, which would be possible by taking advantage of falling foreign exchange rates and that the American art trade was not alert enough. Five stakeholders succeeded in putting together a total of SEK 700,000 on purchases. The National Museum’s “contribution” was the expertise. From the joint acquisition, the museum would then be allowed to choose art for a tenth of the total amount, which means SEK 70,000. In total, three such consortium trips were made. For the works that were acquired and selected for the museum’s collection here is Manet’s Parisian, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot’s Red Cliffs at Cività Castellana and Théodore Géricaults The severed heads.

After all, thanks to Bergh’s efforts and later purchases and donations, the collection of French 19th-century art has grown strong. When the collector Klas Fåhræus was forced to sell his collection in 1926 for financial reasons, the museum succeeded, with the help of National Museum’s friends, to acquire, among others, Auguste Renoir’s In Mother Anthony’s inn, Gustave Courbets Jo, the beautiful Irishman and Cézannes Still Life with a figurine. On several occasions, Grace and Philip Sandblom have donated significant works by Eugène Delacroix, Courbet and Cézanne. Highlights include Renoir’s La Grenouillère, which was donated to the museum in 1924 by an anonymous donor through National Museum friends.

Under Richard Bergh, modernism also entered the museum. In the coming decades, active 20th-century art was acquired, the existence of which was rather limited at the National Museum. In 1958 the Moderna Museet opened in the navy’s exercise house at Skeppsholmen and the 20th century art got its own premises.

The engraving and hand drawing collection
The National Museum’s collection of drawings and graphics consists of a total of about 500,000 magazines from the late Middle Ages to around 1900. The core of the collection consists of the more than 2,000 master drawings Carl Gustaf Tessin bought in Paris in the spring of 1742 at the auction after the French collector Pierre Crozat. This included works by artists such as Rafael, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Rembrandt and French rococo masters. For financial reasons, Tessin had to sell the collection to King Adolf Fredrik. It was later acquired by King Gustav III, through whose care it came to the Royal Museum via the Royal Library and subsequently to the National Museum.

Another person who has had significance for the structure of the collection is Johan Tobias Sergel. During his stay in Rome, he collected drawings by, among others, Johann Heinrich Füssli and Angelica Kauffman as well as drawings by older masters, several of which are now on display at the National Museum. Of what Sergel left behind, however, it was mainly the drawings of his own hand that enriched the collection. In 1875, the museum purchased over 800 drawings from his legacy.

Another important part of the engraving and hand-drawing collection is the engraving and ornament stitch collections, and in particular Nicodemus Tessin the younger collection of architecture-related leaves. The collections also include magazines belonging to architects Carl Johan Cronstedt and Carl Hårleman. Much of the material was purchased in connection with the 18th century castle building to serve as a model. The collection of architectural drawings that Nicodemus Tessin left behind is today considered one of the foremost in the world. During his educational journey he acquired, among other things, unique magazines by, for example, Jean Berain and André Le Nôtre. The acquisitions did not cease as he returned home but could continue thanks to a large contact network on the continent.

The Craft Collection
In the Royal Museum, the crafts were few and did not take up much space. In the plans for the National Museum building, therefore, the craftsmanship was not prepared very large space, which would soon prove to be a problem. By 1851, the Museum of Manufactures, now the Victoria & Albert Museum, had opened in London. As in the United Kingdom, the idea was introduced in Sweden that exhibited examples of ancient crafts would inspire and stimulate actors in the modern art industry, while such an exhibition naturally manifested the state of production and trade.

Votes were raised about the importance of a special handicraft museum, whereupon a committee in 1877 proposed that one should be built south of Hötorget, but the plans were never realized. About the same time, the museum received two large donations from King Karl XV (2,500 objects) and Axel Bielke (2,200 objects) respectively. In 1884, the Swedish Slaughter Society donated 2,700 items. For over a decade, the Craft Association had run an art industry museum under its own auspices but had to close down due to overly difficult economic conditions.

The donations can be considered as weighty submissions in the discussion about the need for a special handicraft museum and they would have an impact. Not enough to create a special museum, but well for the collection to become a separate department in 1885. After the Livrustkammar moved out and took over the Royal Library’s premises at the Royal Palace, the department of arts and crafts had two large, interconnected halls in the museum building’s mezzanine. Until the National Museum was renovated, beginning in 2013, the art collection was displayed on this plane, but in more rooms. The exhibition was divided into two periods, the first from about 1500 to 1750 and the second from the 1910s to the present. The older part of the collection, as shown in the exhibition, consists primarily of precious objects owned by royalty and other wealthy persons; examples of what is shown are the so-called Bielkesängen and the Alhambrava vase.

In the department The modern form 1900–2000, objects such as textiles, ceramics, silver, furniture, lighting fixtures, glass and porcelain and objects in industrial design were displayed. The “beautiful everyday goods” was exemplified by Wilhelm Kåge’s porcelain series Liljeblå from the Home Exhibition 1917 and Stig Lindberg’s refractory ceramics Terma from the 1955 Helsingborg exhibition. The department also featured a grand piano in design Sigurd Lewerentz from the Stockholm exhibition in 1930 and furniture by, among others, Mies van der Rohe, Yngve Ekström, Jonas Bohlin andGunilla Allard. Other items at the exhibition were e.g. Gösta Thames telephone Ericofon (called “Kobran”), A&E Design’s dish brush and queuing system and the 1991 Nobel service with porcelain Karin Björquist, glass and cutlery by Gunnar Cyrén and textile by Ingrid Dessau.

Thumbnail collection
The National Museum’s collection of miniatures amounts to approximately 5,200 numbers. The works in the collection have many different origins, not least among different royalty, but of particular importance are two donations and a large number of acquisitions made recently. The donations were made by Carl Fredrik Dahlgren in 1894 and Hjalmar Wicander1927. Dahlgren was a great collector and focused on Scandinavian and German works. His gift consisted of a total of 4,435 miniatures which gave the collection a very wide range. Wicander, in turn, did not gather as widely but concentrated on works of very high quality. After his donation, he continued to finance and otherwise engage in important acquisitions. Of great importance is also the fund that Wicander set up the year after the donation, which has made it possible to supplement the collection with some of its most prominent numbers today by artists such as Francisco de Goya and Louis Marie Autissier. The collection is rich in works by Peter Adolf Hall, the Swedish miniature painter who made great success in France. During the period 2009-2013, the collection was shown in a permanent exhibition.

Museum activities today
Until 2013, when the National Museum’s building at Blasieholmen in Stockholm was closed for renovation, a number of temporary major exhibitions were displayed annually. Some examples were Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Terribly beautiful, Lure the eye, Prerafaelites, Caspar David Friedrich, Rubens & van Dyck, Concept design, Form of the times and Slow Art. In the engraving gallery, smaller exhibitions with works were preferably shown from their own collections. The museum lends a large number of works to exhibitions at other museums in Sweden and abroad. The National Museum also conducts research activities with its own collections as a starting point as well as its own publishing activities.

The National Museum also has an archive and image archive. The museum is also the head of the Art Library, which is one of the Nordic region’s largest art libraries and which is the National Library’s and the Modern Museum’s joint library. The archives and the Art Library are located on Holmamiralen’s road 2 on Skeppsholmen and are open to the public.

At the museum there is a department for preservation, photography and art management with specializations on the objects in each collection. The department works with the preservation of the objects and collaborates with the Collections and Research Department in technical investigations.

The National Museum manages, in whole and in part, the collections of objects at a large number of visitor destinations around the country. These include, for example, Drottningholm Castle, Läckö Castle, Lövstabruk Manor, Vadstena Castle and Gustavsberg’s porcelain factory. The Orangery Museum at Ulriksdal Castle and the Museum de Vries at Drottningholmsmalmen contain central parts of the museum’s sculpture collection.

Until July 1, 2017, Prince Eugene Waldemarsudde belonged to the authority Nationalmuseum with Prince Eugens Waldemarsudde. The authority (now solely referred to as the National Museum) sorts under the Ministry of Culture.

The Friends of the Museum Nationalmusei’s Friends was founded in 1911 by the then Crown Prince Gustaf (VI) Adolf and over the years has made significant contributions to the museum’s collections.

New National Museum
The National Museum in Stockholm closed on 3 February 2013 for renovations. The museum was in need of extensive renovation and renovation as the building was severely worn by intensive use. Several of the technical systems in the house have reached their service life. In 2009, the National Property Agency was commissioned to do a feasibility study and in 2010 SFV was commissioned to develop a building program that was presented to the government in 2011. In 2012, planning for renovation and renovation of the National Museum began and in February 2013 the National Museum began its evacuation of the museum building.

A year later, on February 20, 2014, SFV was given the government’s task to carry out renovation and rebuilding of the National Museum into a fully modern museum building, adapted to the future of the museum’s activities with preserved cultural historical values in the unique, building-memorized museum building. The work was done in close collaboration with the tenant Nationalmuseum.

The museum was inaugurated October 13, 2018 by King Carl XVI Gustaf in the presence of parts of the royal family , Minister of Culture Alice Bah Kuhnke and thousands of visitors. The museum’s exhibition space has been expanded and can now receive twice as many visitors and display close to three times as many works. In addition to a technical update, previously sealed windows and roof lanterns have been included to create more daylight and views of the city. The noisy restaurant has been given a better, quieter location and replaced with an airy and quiet sculpture yard. The museum has regained a vibrant color range inspired by the original palette.