The Artist and his Wife Marie Suzanne Giroust painting the Portrait of Henrik Wilhelm Peill

In the summer of 1754, the artist Alexander Roslin was asked to take over various purchasing duties in Paris on behalf of Carl Gustaf Tessin. When Henrik Wilhelm Peill, Tessin’s protegé, arrived in Paris on a European study tour in the mid-1760s, Roslin and his wife welcomed Peill with open arms. As a token of the resulting close friendship, Roslin painted the portrait of himself and his wife, Marie Suzanne Giroust, at the easel working on a pastel of Peill. The painting was produced toward the end of Peill’s visit. The portrait within the portrait has never been found, but several copies exist of an earlier version produced by Marie Suzanne Giroust the previous year.

The gold box housing the miniature portrait that Roslin is pointing at is part of the rebus-like nature of the painting and may have been a lavish farewell gift from Peill. The inscription on the frame, Loin et près (Far away and [yet] close), makes it clear that the portrait was indeed a token of friendship. Peill most likely acquired the painting that same year or in the years that immediately followed. Shortly after his return to Sweden, he married Anna Johanna Grill the younger, daughter of the late Claes Grill the elder, former director of the Swedish East India Company. The evidence suggests that the younger woman portrayed in miniature on the gold box in the painting is Miss Grill, while the older woman is probably her mother, Anna Johanna the elder.

In this light, it is easy to understand why Roslin felt called upon in September 1775 to paint the Grill Family Portrait, which is now in the Gothenburg Museum of Art. The painting of the widowed Anna Johanna Grill the elder with her children Adolf Ulric and Anna Johanna the younger readily tied in with the group portrait of the Roslins that has now been acquired by Nationalmuseum. The family portrait, however, did not include Mrs. Grill’s son-in-law, Peill, but rather her late husband. In keeping with convention, he is depicted in another degree of reality, in the form of a pastel portrait by Gustaf Lundberg in the background. The inscription compliments that of the pendant and adds multiple levels of meaning: Loin et près/Unis à jamais (Far away and [yet] close/United forever).

We present today's painting thanks to Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. Soon you will be able to learn more about their collection... but hush for now! :)