Anna Maria Ehrenstrahl

Essay:

Anna Maria Ehrenstrahl began her career as a pupil of her father David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl (1628–1698) who originated in Hamburg and elevated the family to the Swedish nobility. This opened the doors of high society to the artist; she married a wealthy Swedish lawyer, retaining her last name as was common in Sweden.

Ehrenstrahl was commissioned by the court to paint mainly portraits, allegories, and animal paintings. Like many women artists of the period, for much of her career Ehrenstrahl painted copies of her father’s portraits in his studio but, once she left her father’s side, she was free to pursue her own projects. Ehrenstrahl found numerous commissions from the highest circles of Swedish society, including the royal family for whom she painted numerous portraits, and through her husband’s connections as a lawyer in the Crown Court.

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This study of horses is probably a sketch for Ehrenstrahl’s painting depicting the same horses in a landscape, which was sold at Bukowski’s auction no. 352, May 2004. This picture had provenance connecting it to Johan Watrang (1652–1724), President of the Swedish Court of Appeal and Ehrenstrahl’s husband.

Ehrenstrahl’s composition ultimately appears to derive from the Study of Five Horses by the Flemish-French Adam Frans van der Meulen (1632–1690) in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen (inv. no. D.896-2). Van der Meulen executed a number of small canvases of this type after his arrival in France, apparently working from horses that were in the Grandes Ecuries at Versailles for the Goebelins Manufactory. Presumably these designs were copied by Ehrenstrahl, who occasionally worked as a copyist due to restrictive rules applied to the few female artists working at this time.

The reverse of the frame bears a label with the stamp of Queen Josefina of Sweden (a crown above a stylised J) above the notes ‘1860 / no. 140’.

Provenance:

Queen Josefina of Sweden (1807-1876), 1860, no. 140 (according to a label, verso);
Private collection, Sweden.