Carl Gustaf Pilo
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
-born artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, one of many 18th century European artists who had to leave their own country in order to make a living. Pilo worked extensively in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
as a painter to the Danish Court and as professor and director at the Royal Danish Academy of Art
Royal Danish Academy of Art
The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts has provided a practice-oriented complement to the scholarly investigation of the arts carried out at Danish universities for more than 250 years, playing a crucial part in the development of the distinctive tradition of the art of Denmark.- History :The Royal...
, as well as in his native Sweden. Carl Gustaf is most famous for his masterly painting, "The Coronation of Gustaf III" commissioned by King Gustav III of Sweden
Gustav III of Sweden
Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Queen Louise Ulrica of Sweden, she a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia....
.
Early years
He was born on the farm Göksäter in Runtuna Parish near NyköpingNyköping
Nyköping is a locality and the seat of Nyköping Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 32,427 inhabitants in 2005. The city is also the capital of Södermanland County.- History :...
, Södermanland
Södermanland
', sometimes referred to under its Latin form Sudermannia or Sudermania, is a historical province or landskap on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Östergötland, Närke, Västmanland and Uppland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea.In Swedish, the province name is...
to painter Olof (Oluff) Pilo (Pijhlou) and Beata Jönsdotter Sahlstedt.
Early information about his career contains many inconsistencies, on account of disagreements between two sources contemporary with his life. In spite of his father's protests Carl Gustav chose to be educated as a painter instead of receiving a book education. He probably received his early training from his father, who had earned his living as a young man as a decorative painter at Drottningholm
Drottningholm
Drottningholm, literally "Queen's Islet", is a locality situated in Ekerö Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden, with 410 inhabitants in 2005....
and Stockholm Palace
Stockholm Palace
The Stockholm Palace is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch. . Stockholm Palace is located on Stadsholmen , in Gamla Stan in the capital, Stockholm...
, although other indications say that he was trained by a painter named Crisman in Stockholm, Sweden. Training for Pilo would have begun in Stockholm as early as 1723.
Pilo’s career began as a craft painter. He became an apprentice in 1731. According to Anton Friedrich Büsching
Anton Friedrich Büsching
Anton Friedrich Büsching was a celebrated German theologian and geographer.His Erdbeschreibung was the first geographical work of any scientific merit. The first 10 parts feature the geography of Europe, the 11...
(1754) Pilo traveled through Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
1734-36; this however is contradicted by Thure Wennberg (1794) who insists that Pilo never traveled out of Scandinavia but instead was a student at the newly established Swedish Drawing Academy in 1735. He probably worked as a craft painter between 1733 and 1738.
Career start in Skåne
He lived 1738-1741 in ScaniaScania
Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...
where he may have worked as a craft painter for two Scanian noble families, the Lewenhaupt family and the Baron Malte Ramel family. Pastoral drawings of his from this time indicate that he may have painted decorations at some estate. He was reputed to be a competent portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
ist, and is reported to have painted a large family picture for the widow Countess Lewenhaupt.
He became betrothed to Eva Maria Malmgren of Hofterup (between Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
and Landskrona
Landskrona
Landskrona is a locality and the seat of Landskrona Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 28,670 inhabitants in 2005.-History:The city of Landskrona was founded at the location of Scania's best natural harbour, as a means of King Eric of Pomerania's anti-Hanseatic policy, intended to compete...
), a churchwarden’s daughter, in 1738. During these years in Skåne he also made portraits, although it is not evident from the quality of his work that he ever received professional instruction at this point in his career.
Continued career in Denmark
In early 1741 when marriage to Malmgren began to loom, Pilo left Skåne, Scania in english, and moved to CopenhagenCopenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. There is some question as to whether he left his fiancée behind in Sweden in a childbearing state. In any case Pilo refused to marry her, and the engagement first became legally annulled on 5 May 1747.
He brought with him to Denmark a letter of introduction from Charlotte Amélie Dorothée Desmarez, governess at the Ramel residence and his future wife, to her brother-in-law C.G. Almer, language teacher at the National Cadet Academy (Landkadetakademiet) in Copenhagen. He started working as drawing teacher at the Academy on 4 April 1741, teaching the sons of Danish nobility, the royal pages and cadets.
He became at that time a favorite of Admiral Count Danneskjold.
He continued his career as a portraitist in Denmark. He painted an enthusiastically received portrait of Crown Princess Louise of England, the wife of the future Frederick V, one of centenarian
Centenarian
A centenarian is a person who is or lives beyond the age of 100 years. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only...
Christen Jacobsen Drakenberg in 1742, at the acclaimed age of 116, and another of Christian Lerche in 1743. He concentrated on developing his craft during the 1740s, and probably drew from model in 1744. His duties soon expanded at the Academy; when on 28 June 1745 he became supervisor of drawing instruction, and began making portraits for King Christian VI
Christian VI of Denmark
Christian VI was King of Denmark and Norway from 1730 to 1746.He was the son of King Frederick IV of Denmark and Norway and Louise of Mecklenburg-Güstrow. He married Sophia Magdalen of Brandenburg-Kulmbach and fathered Frederick V.-The reign and personality of Christian VI:To posterity Christian...
.
In the years 1745-1747 he began to introduce rococo
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
into his artwork, as seen in his portraits of Sophie Dorothea Danneskiold-Samsøe and A.G. Moltke.
Success at the Royal Court and Academy
Frederick V of Denmark
Frederick V was king of Denmark and Norway from 1746, son of Christian VI of Denmark and Sophia Magdalen of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.-Early life:...
, whose duties also included the supervision and restoration of paintings at the royal residences. After several years development he became fully employed by the court and paintings streamed out of his studio.
In 1748 Pilo was named professor at the Drawing and Painting Academy (Tegne- og Malerakademiet), predecessor to the Royal Danish Academy of Art
Royal Danish Academy of Art
The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts has provided a practice-oriented complement to the scholarly investigation of the arts carried out at Danish universities for more than 250 years, playing a crucial part in the development of the distinctive tradition of the art of Denmark.- History :The Royal...
(Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi), along with Marcus Tuscher and Johann Friedrich Gerhard. The Academy was then located in the Post Office (Postamts) building behind the Stock Exchange, and was then managed and supervised by Nicolai Eigtved
Nicolai Eigtved
Nicolai Eigtved, also known as Niels Eigtved, , Danish architect, introduced and was the leading proponent of the French rococo style in Danish architecture during the 1730s-1740s. He designed and built some of the most prominent buildings of his time, a number of which still stand to this day...
(also known as Niels Eigtved), architect and royal building master.
In late summer 1748 the Academy moved to the floor above the Crown Prince's stables at Christiansborg Palace
Christiansborg Palace
Christiansborg Palace, , on the islet of Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, is the seat of the Folketing , the Danish Prime Minister's Office and the Danish Supreme Court...
, where Eigtved had his offices, while the model school continued on Gammelstrand, where Hieronimo Miani
Hieronimo Miani
Hieronimo Miani, also known as Hieronymus Miani, was an Italian history painter, who worked in Denmark as both a painter to the royal court of King Christian VI, and as a teacher....
, former leader of the Academy, had started the studio. Eigtved, the first Dane to exercise some control in the Academy to this point, became the Academy's first Director in 1751.
Pilo married Charlotte Amélie Dorothée Desmarez (Desmars) on 5 January 1750 at Maltesholm.
Pilo painted a full figure portrait of the king, "Frederik V in Coronation Outfit" ("Frederik V
Frederick V of Denmark
Frederick V was king of Denmark and Norway from 1746, son of Christian VI of Denmark and Sophia Magdalen of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.-Early life:...
i kroningsdragt") in 1751, which is now in the collection of the Danish National Gallery
Statens Museum for Kunst
Statens Museum for Kunst is the Danish national gallery located in Copenhagen....
.
The Academy moved to Charlottenborg
Charlottenborg Palace
Charlottenborg Palace is a large town mansion located on the corner of Kongens Nytorv and Nyhavn in Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally built as a residence for Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, it has served as the base of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts since its foundation in 1754...
, and became dedicated as the Royal Danish Academy of Art on 30 March 1754, after inspiration from the French Académie française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
. Pilo gave the welcoming speech to King Frederick V, not Eigtved. Eigtved was removed from the Director's position a few days later, and the directorship went to a Frenchman, Jacques Francis Joseph Saly
Jacques Saly
Jacques François Joseph Saly, also known as Jacques Saly , French-born sculptor who worked in France, Denmark, and Italy, was born in Valenciennes to Francois Marie Saly and wife Marie Michelle....
. Pilo became a member of the Academy that same year.
During the early years of the Academy most of the artists and architects who served in leading positions, both managerial and educational, were not Danish. It would be some time before Danes took a leading role in the Academy. Eigtved died two months later on 7 June 1754.
Around 1757 neoclassicism began to replace rococo as the popular style, and his works became more romantic and dramatic with focus on shadow and light effects, and with more attention paid to depicting the models. Another inspiration for his changing style was the possibility to study first-hand the works of Rembrandt and other great Dutch Masters from the 17th century, works that in these years were being collected by Moltke and the royal painting collection. Pilo was also inspired by French painter Louis Tocqué
Louis Tocqué
Jean Louis Tocqué was a French painter. He specialized in portrait painting.- Biography :Jean Louis Tocqué was born on November 19, 1696 in Paris, capital of the Kingdom of France. His father who was also a painter abandoned him in 1706 at the age of ten. In 1707 Jean-Marc Nattier another painter...
, who visited Denmark 1758-1759.
Pilo was drawing instructor for Crown Prince Christian VII
Christian VII of Denmark
Christian VII was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein from 1766 until his death. He was the son of Danish King Frederick V and his first consort Louisa, daughter of King George II of Great Britain....
in 1759. Around 1760 he made portraits of A.G. Moltke, his wife, and Anna Margrethe Juel which foreshadowed the arrival of Louise XVI style to Denmark.
He became a member of the Academy of Art in Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
1759, and a member of the Academy of Art in St. Petersburg 1770. He exhibited at Charlottenborg in 1769.
The royal court set a high demand on Pilo’s productivity in the years 1748-1767, having purchased more than 50 portraits of King Frederik V.
Under the absolute monarchy of the times the Academy's fortunes were dependent on both the good will and the whims of the King and his emissaries. Pilo succeeded Jacques Saly in 1771 to the leadership of the Academy, and worked to get the Academy a protectorship under the Crown Prince Frederik VI
Frederick VI of Denmark
Frederick VI reigned as King of Denmark , and as king of Norway .-Regent of Denmark:Frederick's parents were King Christian VII and Caroline Matilda of Wales...
, who was given an honorary title in 1772.
Downfall
Danish art was well served by the presence of foreign artists at the Academy until there was a reaction to foreigners in 1771-1772 after both the ouster of German Johann Friedrich StruenseeJohann Friedrich Struensee
Count Johann Friedrich Struensee was a German doctor. He became royal physician to the mentally ill King Christian VII of Denmark and a minister in the Danish government. He rose in power to a position of “de facto” regent of the country, where he tried to carry out widespread reforms...
from the Danish Royal Court, and Swedish King Gustav III's coup d'état which turned Danes against Sweden.
On 31 August 1772 Pilo received the newly established Cross of the Knights of the Order of Vasa by a Swedish emissary of Gustav III, which required Pilo to take an oath of allegiance to Sweden, the land of his birth. This was considered unacceptable for someone in service to the King of Denmark, and the ensuing royal intrigues cost him his position.
On 10 September he was ordered by Hereditary Prince Frederick to travel within two days to Schleswig
Schleswig
Schleswig or South Jutland is a region covering the area about 60 km north and 70 km south of the border between Germany and Denmark; the territory has been divided between the two countries since 1920, with Northern Schleswig in Denmark and Southern Schleswig in Germany...
to paint a life-size portrait of the King’s sister Louise, her husband Carl Count of Hesse-Kassel
Hesse-Kassel
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel or Hesse-Cassel was a state in the Holy Roman Empire under Imperial immediacy that came into existence when the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided in 1567 upon the death of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. His eldest son William IV inherited the northern half and the...
(or Hesse-Cassel), and their children.
Pilo rejected the assignment the same day, and asked to take his resignation, which was accepted on 17 September. Thus he lost his position, ending a career of over 30 years of service to the Danish crown.
On 21 September he received orders to leave the country within 3–4 weeks. Pilo felt that he was set up in court intrigues by Ove Høegh-Guldberg
Ove Høegh-Guldberg
Ove Høegh-Guldberg was a Danish statesman, historian and de facto prime minister of Denmark, 1772–1784.-Biography:...
, a central figure in the court ruling Denmark at the time, Peder Als
Peder Als
Peder Als, a Danish historical and portrait painter, born at Copenhagen in 1725, studied for some time under C. G. Pile. After gaining the first great prize given by the academy at Copenhagen in 1755, he went to Rome and entered the school of Mengs. He occupied himself chiefly in copying the...
and Secretary of the Cabinet Andreas Schumacher. Als had been one of Pilo’s best students, and had traveled to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, bringing back a strongly Italian-inspired painting style that became the rage. Als criticism of the foreign element within the Academy helped lead not only to the downfall of Pilo himself, but to the disappearance of the many French artists at the Academy in the years after 1770.
Return to Sweden
Pilo left Denmark on 10 or 11 October and arrived in Stockholm in November, after having visited the Ramel family in Skåne. He appeared before the Swedish court but received no immediate commissions.He was made an honorary member of the Swedish Academy of Art in 1773, and received the Vasa Order in 1784. He traveled about between Skåne and Stockholm during 1772-1775, until settling down in his childhood town of Nyköping
Nyköping
Nyköping is a locality and the seat of Nyköping Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 32,427 inhabitants in 2005. The city is also the capital of Södermanland County.- History :...
in 1775. Gustav III
Gustav III of Sweden
Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Queen Louise Ulrica of Sweden, she a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia....
looked him up, requesting him to paint the coronation. Pilo tried to get out of it, because he had not been there at the time and he had never painted a group picture in his life. But the King would not take No for an answer. He wanted something to match Ehrenstrahl's
David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl
David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl was a Swedish nobleman and portrait painter.Ehrenstrahl was born in Hamburg. In 1652, at twenty-four years of age, at the request of Carl Gustaf Wrangel, he moved to Skokloster Castle, from his art studies in the Netherlands...
picture, at Drottningholm, of Charles XI's coronation, and he wanted Pilo to do it.
Pilo was named Director of the Swedish Academy in 1777, but first took office in 1780 when he also received an apartment in Stockholm as part of his directorship at the Academy. He lived out his days at the Academy, both engaged in the Academy’s business and in painting his masterpiece, the painting of Gustav III’s coronation in Stockholm’s Cathedral, which he worked on until the very end.
He died in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
on 2 March 1793, and is buried at Klara Church.
His prolific output in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
consisted mainly of portraits of the royals and the nobility, but included also genre paintings in the Dutch style. For over two decades, he was acknowledged as the foremost portrait painter in Denmark. In addition to Peder Als
Peder Als
Peder Als, a Danish historical and portrait painter, born at Copenhagen in 1725, studied for some time under C. G. Pile. After gaining the first great prize given by the academy at Copenhagen in 1755, he went to Rome and entered the school of Mengs. He occupied himself chiefly in copying the...
, other students of his were Per Krafft and Lorens Pasch.