Carl Frederik von Breda
| Carl Frederik von Breda | |
|---|---|
1787 Selfportrait
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| Born |
August 16, 1759 , Sweden |
| Died | December 1, 1818 (aged 59) Stockholm, Sweden |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Education | Royal Swedish Academy of Arts |
| Known for | Painting |
Carl Frederik von Breda (August 16, 1759 – December 1, 1818) was a Swedish painter who studied in and spent much of his career in Britain before becoming painter to the Swedish court. He was born in in 1759, and moved to Britain where he was a student of Joshua Reynolds. Breda specialized in painting portraits and was called "the van Dyck of Sweden". He returned to Sweden 1796 where he became Professor at the Academy of Arts, a popular portraitist, and a court painter. Breda married at age 22 and his son, Johan Fredrik, was also a painter, who studied under his father. Breda died in Stockholm in 1818.
Breda's great-grandfather Pieter emigrated to Stockholm around the year 1670 from the Netherlands. The "von Breda" family name seems to indicate a connection with the city of Breda. Von is not a Dutch preposition, but in the Nordic countries, this originally German preposition has occasionally been used as a part of names of ennobled families of native or foreign, but non-German, origin. Pieter's son Lucas (Carl's grandfather, 1676–1752) was a successful painter. His son Lucas (Carl's father, 1726–1799) was an "arbitrator in cases of shipwreck", who also collected art. Lucas the younger married Johanna Cornelia Piper and they had five children, with Carl born on August 16, 1759. Carl had "an excellent education" and enrolled in the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts at age 19.
At the Academy, Breda studied historical and portrait painting. Lorens Pasch, the Younger was Breda's master there, and Breda's early works show this influence very clearly, especially in his color palette. In 1780 Breda received the first of many prizes for his art, and in 1784 he exhibited 19 paintings in the first exhibition which the Academy arranged. The same year he saw his first royal portrait, one of Duchess Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte, sister-in-law to King Gustavus III. He also painted the Crown Prince, Gustavus Adolphus, and Gustavus III himself.
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