Prince Eugene of Sweden. A painter’s brief biography

Abstract

This article tells about the main stages of the biography of the famous Scandinavian painter Prince Eugene, a representative of the Bernadotte dynasty, who left a noticeable mark on the history of Swedish culture. Having no prospects of ever taking the royal throne, Eugene, after receiving the traditional upbringing and education for the heir to the throne, devoted himself to the study of painting. Having experienced the serious influence of the French Impressionist masters of the last third of the 19th century during his studies in Paris, he worked fruitfully in various genres for a long time, leaving an extensive creative legacy: his brush owns not only numerous canvases presented both in leading museums in Sweden and world-class collections (the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum), but also monuments of monumental painting — in particular, frescoes in the Stockholm City Hall and the Royal Drama Theater. The activity of Prince Eugene as a representative of the Swedish royal court during the period on the eve of the dissolution of the Swedish-Norwegian union is a significant research interest. Prince Eugene made certain efforts to preserve the unity of Sweden and Norway by popularizing such ideas in the Norwegian creative environment, where he had wide acquaintances and a certain popularity and was even proposed by such famous figures of Norwegian culture as K. Hamsun and B. Bjornson as a possible candidate for the role of king of Norway. The prince-artist is also noteworthy as a public figure who held anti-Nazi positions during the period before and during World War II: he not only condemned the policies of the Third Reich, but also criticized Swedish public figures who expressed sympathy for the actions of the Nazi regime in Germany. Nowadays, the extensive creative heritage of Prince Eugene is on display in the collection of the art museum located in his estate Waldemarsudde in Stockholm, where he lived and worked for most of his life and where he was buried after his death.