Mikael Ahlund

I am Director of Gustavianum, Uppsala University Museum, Keeper of the Art Collection, and Associate Professor at the Department of Art History. Previous positions include Deputy Director of Gustavianum (2015–2018) and Curator at the Department of Paintings and Sculpture at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (1998–2014). I received my PhD from the Department of Art History in 2011; my research interests include various aspects of Nordic and European art and visual culture between 1650 and 1800.

Before being appointed as Director of Gustavianum in 2019, I was the Museum’s Deputy Director for four years (2015–2018). My previous experience of museums also includes appointments at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (1998–2014), the Mediterranean Museum in Stockholm, and several of the Swedish Royal Palaces. I have curated a number of national and international exhibitions, including The Pre-Raphaelites (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2009), Pehr Hilleström (Sinebrychoff, Helsinki, 2014) and The Art of Natural Science (The University Museum, Tokyo, 2018).

I gained my PhD in 2011 from the Department of Art History at Uppsala University for research into attitudes towards the natural world and images of landscapes during the 18th century, with a particular focus on the artist Elias Martin. After my dissertation, I have continued my academic development and in 2014 became an associate professor at Uppsala University. As an author and scholar, I have been involved with many different themes and areas of art, mainly focusing on the period 1650–1800. Alongside my studies in Uppsala, I have also participated in the course Royal Collection Studies at Windsor Castle (1996), as well as the art history course at the Swedish Institute in Rome (1989).

My other activities include being a board member for The Leufsta Foundation and Greta Gerell’s Foundation, and I have previously been a board member for the Swedish branch of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, ISECS. I am also a member of the research council of the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul. In addition, I have acted as an editor for a number of publications and periodicals, including The Art Collection of Uppsala University, the Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, and the art journal Valör.

Selected publications:

• ”The art of natural science in Sweden, 1680–1800, in The Art of Natural Science in Sweden. Treasures from Uppsala University, The University Museum, The University of Tokyo (Tokyo, 2018), pp. 15–20 & 157–162. (In English and Japanese.)

• “The first published picturesque description of Sweden – Johan Fischerström”, Picturing Places, British Library (London 2017): https://www.bl.uk/picturing-places/articles/the-first-published-picturesque-description-of-sweden-johan-fischerstrom

• “The travel journals of ‘the first Swedish tourist’ – Jonas Carl Linnerhielm”, Picturing Places, British Library (London, 2017): https://www.bl.uk/picturing-places/articles/the-travel-journals-of-the-first-swedish-tourist-jonas-carl-linnerhielm

• “Topography, iron-making and national identity in the 18th century – A British–Swedish comparison”, Picturing Places, British Library (London, 2017): https://www.bl.uk/picturing-places/articles/topography-iron-making-and-national-identity-in-the-18th-century-a-british-swedish-comparison

• ”Hermeliner, historia och rollspel. Om Lorens Paschs porträtt av Gustaf III i Vasa hovrätt”, in Jag är inte jag. Kända och glömda porträtt, Sinebrychoff Art Museum (Helsinki, 2017), pp. 74–78. (Also in Finnish.)

• ”Ett kungligt parti schack. Om David von Kraffts porträtt av Karl XII in Helsingfors universitet”, Jag är inte jag. Kända och glömda porträtt, Sinebrychoff Art Museum (Helsinki, 2017), pp. 87–91. (Also in Finnish.)

• ”Konsten att försörja sig som konstnär. Pehr Hilleström och konstmarknaden i 1700-talets Stockholm”, in Ekonomisk kulturhistoria. Bildkonst, konsthantverk och scenkonst 1720–1850, ed. Klas Nyberg (Stockholm, 2017), pp. 36–49.

• ”The wilderness inside Drottningholm. Ehrenstrahl and the Northern nature at the court of Hedwig Eleonora”, in Queen Hedwig Eleonora and the Arts. Court Culture in the Seventeenth-Century Northern Europe, eds. Kristoffer Neville & Lisa Skogh (Oxon & New York, 2017), pp. 88–103.

• ”Att se och bli sedd på den svenska konstscenen under 1700-talet. Nedslag i konstbetraktandets kulturhistoria”, in Historisk tidskrift för Finland, no. 4, 2015, pp. 377–419.

• ”Den svenska naturen genom Ehrenstrahls ögon”, in Hedvig Eleonora – den svenska barockens drottning, ed. Merit Laine, Husgerådskammaren (Stockholm, 2015), pp. 156–157.

• Pehr Hilleström. Att se vardagen, Sinebrychoff Art Museum (Helsinki, 2014). (Also in Finnish.)

• ”Famous and forgotten in the collections of the Nationalmuseum”, in Highlights. Famous and forgotten art treasures in the collections of the Nationalmuseum (Stockholm, 2014), pp. 7–15.

• ”Det mångtydiga landskapet. Konst och natur i 1700-talets Sverige”, in Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundets i Uppsala årsbok 2012 (Uppsala, 2013), pp. 145–159.

• ”Greta Gerell – en egen väg genom 1900-talet”, in Form, färg och harmoni, ed. Lars Furborg, Säfstaholms slott (Vingåker, 2013), pp. 6–23 (with Karin Neuschütz).

• ”’En urbild för sjelfve Claude-Lorrains målning’. Reseskildringar, bildkonst och naturidyller i 1700-talets Sverige”, in Från Arkadien till Arktis. Diktad natur och idyll, ed. Claes Ahlund, Litteraturvetenskapliga meddelanden från Åbo Akademi, Turku, no. 40, 2012, pp. 20–45.

• ”Konstsamlingen i herrgården”, in Lövstabruk. Ej sin like i hela riket, ed. Ann-Charlotte Ljungholm (Lövstabruk, 2011), pp. 65–71.

• Landskapets röster. Studier i Elias Martins bildvärld (Stockholm, 2011). (Dissertation.)

• “Joseph Wright of Derby in a Northern light. Swedish comparisons and connections: Pehr Hilleström & Elias Martin”, in British Art Journal, London, no. 1, 2010, pp. 3–10.

• ”The Pre-Raphaelites. Dream and Reality in Nineteenth-Century Britain”, in The Pre-Raphaelites, Nationalmuseum (Stockholm, 2009), pp. 9–37.

• ”The Pre-Raphaelites, the Arts and Crafts Movement and Sweden”, in The Pre-Raphaelites, Nationalmuseum (Stockholm, 2009), pp.135–143.

• “Linnerhielm. A traveller in the Swedish summer”, in Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, vol. 16 (2009), pp. 64–65.

• ”Ehrenstrahl och den svenska naturen. Några reflektioner kring ett orrspel”, in Barockens visuella värld. Essäer om konst i 1600-talets Europa, ed. Karin Sidén (Stockholm, 2008), pp. 92–95.

• “Sevenboms bildvärld och den europeiska vedutan under 1700-talet”, in Sevenbom, Bellman och prinsessan, Stockholms Stadsmuseum (Stockholm, 2007), pp. 72–85.

• “Two Drawings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti”, in Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, vol. 14 (2007), pp. 25–26.

• “Äldre bilder från Roslagen. 1700–1920”, in Roslagskonst, ed. Daniel Werkmäster (Norrtälje, 2005), pp. 11–22.

• ”Reseskildringarna, gravyrverken och bilden av Italien”, in Drömmen om Italien. Nordiska resenärer i Södern 1750–1870, Nationalmuseum (Stockholm, 2004), pp. 24–29.

• “The nationalization of Nordic nature. Art, nature and national identity in eighteenth-century Sweden”, in Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, vol. 11 (2004), pp. 89–96.

• ”Två 1700-talspanoramor över Konstantinopel i Bibysamlingen”, in Minnet av Konstantinopel. Den osmansk-turkiska 1700-talssamlingen på Biby (Stockholm, 2003), pp. 183–200.

• ”Det turkiska galleriet i Celsings Stockholmsbostad”, in Minnet av Konstantinopel. Den osmansk-turkiska 1700-talssamlingen på Biby (Stockholm, 2003), pp. 293–304.

• ”Un paysage suédois peint par Elias Martin au Musée Magnin de Dijon”, in Bulletin des Musées de Dijon, Dijon, no. 8, 2002, pp. 39–43.

• “Scenes from an eighteenth-century Swedish rural iron making estate”, in Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, vol. 9 (2002), pp. 19–20.

• ”Det nationella landskapet. Om upptäckten av den svenska naturen”, i Nationalism och nationell identitet i 1700-talets Sverige, eds. Åsa Karlsson & Bo Lindberg (Stockholm, 2002), pp. 17–33.

• ”Ett engelskt panorama över Konstantinopel”, in Sverige och den islamiska världen: ett svenskt kulturarv (Stockholm, 2002), pp. 308–311.

• ”Antique sublimity and skin-tight realism. Sculpted portraits of the late 18th century”, in Face to face. Portraits from five centuries, ed. Görel Cavalli-Björkman., Nationalmuseum (Stockholm, 2002), pp. 258–265.

• ”Nature and national identity in Scandinavia, 1790–1910”, in Scandinavian Landscape Painting in the Nineteenth Century, Tokyo 2002, pp. 143–148.

• “Från de kungliga konstsamlingarna till Skokloster”, in Kunglig vänskap. 1700-talet på Skokloster, Skoklosterstudier nr 33, Skokloster (2000), pp. 81–97.

• Islamic Art Collections. An International Survey (Richmond, 2000) (with Karin Ådahl).

• ”A panorama of Constantinople at Nationalmuseum”, in Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, vol. 6, (1999), pp. 78–80.

• “Two new landscapes by Elias Martin in the Nationalmuseum”, in Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, vol. 5, (1998), pp. 14–15.

• ”Svenskt måleri”, in Hallwylska målerisamlingen, ed. Eva Helena Cassel-Pihl (Stockholm, 1997), pp. 272–385.

• ”Svenska bruksbilder under 1700-talet”, in Vallonerna (Lövstabruk, 1996), pp. 81–112.

• ”Wienerrokoko i Sverige. Om två målningar av Johann Georg Plazer på Skokloster”, in Konsthistorisk Tidskrift, Stockholm, vol. LXIV, nr 2, 1995, pp. 99–116.

• Svenska läkaresällskapets porträttsamling (Stockholm, 1993).

• ”Sinan och Suleyman-moskén i Istanbul. Om problem vid tolkandet av islamisk arkitektur”, in Valör, Uppsala, no. 5, 1992, nr 5, pp. 34–51.

• ”Thomas Paine och ’Menniskans rättigheter’ 1792”, in Dagens Nyheter, 13/12/1992.