David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl
The father of Swedish painting.
David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl came from Hamburg and became court painter in Sweden during its age of empire. He painted royalty, allegories and animals for the palaces.
David Klöcker was born in Hamburg in 1628. He studied painting in the Netherlands and came to Sweden in 1652, where he worked for the military commander Carl Gustaf Wrangel. Between 1654 and 1661 he made a long study tour of Italy, where he particularly studied the ceiling paintings and large compositions of the Roman Baroque.
After returning he became court painter to the Queen Dowager Hedvig Eleonora and the young royal house. Sweden was a great power, and the court wanted art that displayed power and splendour. Ehrenstrahl painted portraits of Charles XI and the royal family, but also large allegories in which kings and queens are surrounded by virtues and gods. In 1674 he was ennobled and took the name Ehrenstrahl. He also became court intendant.
Among his best-known works are the large paintings The Last Judgement and The Crucifixion in Storkyrkan, Stockholm Cathedral, from the 1690s. He also painted animals for the king's palaces, including horses and dogs from the royal stables and hunting establishment, with great liveliness. His art combines the splendour of the Italian Baroque with a northern European feeling for detail.
Ehrenstrahl had pupils and taught his craft, and he wrote a book on painting. He is often called “the father of Swedish painting”. He died in Stockholm in 1698. His nephew and pupil David von Krafft succeeded him as the leading court painter. Ehrenstrahl's works have shaped our image of Sweden's age of empire, and many of them are now at Drottningholm, Gripsholm and in the Nationalmuseum.