The Age of Liberty and Rococo

The Academy of Fine Arts was founded, and Swedish portrait painters made careers in Paris.

After the fall of the Age of Greatness, Sweden was governed by the Riksdag, and culture took its cue from France. In 1735 the Royal Academy of Drawing, forerunner of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, was founded to train artists for the building of the Royal Palace.

Swedish artists such as Gustaf Lundberg and Alexander Roslin worked in Paris. Roslin became one of the most sought-after portrait painters in Europe. Carl Gustaf Pilo worked for many years in Copenhagen.

Rococo reached Swedish homes as porcelain, wallpaper and furniture with scrolling curves. In 1773 Ulrica Pasch became the first woman member of the Academy of Fine Arts.