Incollect Magazine - Issue 13

Incollect Magazine 77 Gustav III was an authoritarian ruler; nonetheless, his 20-year reign was marked by significant cultural patronage. He became King in 1771, following the death of his father, and promptly set off on a Grand Tour of European royal capitals. He returned to Scandinavia determined to transform Stockholm into the ‘Paris of the North’, and set about building and remodelling palaces and public buildings in a style inspired by French Rococo and 18th-century Italian Neoclassicism. The Royal Swedish Opera House, opened in 1782, was one of his signature projects. Gustavian furniture and the design style that bears his name today emulate the simple, timeless forms and gentle symmetry of classical design, filtered through a Swedish aesthetic sensibility. The color palettes are muted, chalky, and earthy, reflecting the local landscape. Formal silhouettes are softened, simplified, and refined, while patinas tend to highlight natural materials, especially pine, oak, and beech woods, which are often simply painted or decorated with inlaid wood. Decoration, in short, is restrained, tasteful, and simplified — a kind of Protestant take (Sweden converted to Lutheranism in 1536) of the gilded excesses favored at the courts of the powerful Catholic European monarchs. High Gustavian style is probably best exemplified today in the design and decoration of the Swedish Royal palaces, including Gustavian Style, named for King Gustav III of Sweden, who was shot at the Royal Swedish Opera House in Stockholm by a disgruntled nobleman in a coup d’état against the monarchy — memorialized in Verdi’s 1859 opera, “Un Ballo in Maschera”. Q : A : Which furniture and interior design style bears the name of a European monarch assassinated at a masked ball in 1792? Left: Mora clock with original paint, mechanism, pendulum, and weights, Northern Sweden, circa 1820. Hand-carved detailing around the crown and door frame. From Jacqueline Adams Antiques on Incollect. com, photo: Claudia McDade Right: Set of 8 Gustavian period side chairs with elegant oval openwork backs, Lindome, Sweden, circa 1800. From Jacqueline Adams Antiques on Incollect.com, photo: Claudia McDade