The Chinese Pavilion
In 1753 Adolf Frederick gave Queen Lovisa Ulrika a Chinese pleasure pavilion as a present. It was replaced in 1763–1769 by today’s Chinese Pavilion, designed by Adelcrantz. Curved roofs, Chinese and European motifs and the light colours of the Rococo make it one of the finest Rococo buildings in the Nordic countries.
On Queen Lovisa Ulrika’s birthday in 1753, King Adolf Frederick surprised her with a Chinese pleasure pavilion in the park at Drottningholm. It had been built in sections in Stockholm and assembled in secret. The pavilion was made of wood and could not withstand the climate, and in the 1760s it was replaced by the present building, erected in 1763–1769 to designs by Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz. The building is of rendered brick and timber. Interest in China was great in 18th-century Sweden. The Swedish East India Company, founded in 1731, brought home porcelain, silk, tea and lacquerware from Canton, and Chinese objects became a luxury that the wealthy wished to display. Lovisa Ulrika collected both art and natural specimens, and the pavilion suited her interest in the exotic.
The complex consists of a main building with a central salon and two low wings that curve out in quarter circles, together with detached pavilions. The roofs are curved and decorated with Chinese-inspired ornaments, and the façades are painted in red, yellow and green. The interior mixes genuine Chinese objects, such as lacquer panels, porcelain and wallpapers, with European Rococo. The Red and Yellow Salons have lacquer panels and carvings, while in other rooms French forms with Rococo cartouches and gilding dominate. It is not a Chinese house but a European fantasy of China. A short distance away lies Kanton, a small village built for craftsmen who made silk and other goods.
After Lovisa Ulrika’s time the Chinese Pavilion was used less, and during the 19th century it fell into disrepair. In the 1990s an extensive restoration was carried out, in which the façades, roofs and interiors were returned to their 18th-century appearance. Since 1991 the Chinese Pavilion has been part of the Drottningholm World Heritage Site together with the palace and the theatre. The building is regarded as one of Europe’s best-preserved examples of a Chinese pleasure pavilion, or chinoiserie, and shows how Swedish trade with China influenced both art and architecture. Chinese motifs then spread to Swedish manor houses, on wallpaper, porcelain and textiles. The Chinese Pavilion also represents the playfulness of the Rococo in Sweden and forms a counterweight to the austere Baroque of Tessin’s Drottningholm, a few hundred metres away.