It was painted by Nils Blommér circa 1840...
Nils Blommér was a Swedish painter...
Nils Blommér had a close relationship with Prince Oscar of Sweden and Norway, who later became King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway…
Blommér served as the court painter for Prince Oscar, and their friendship extended beyond a professional relationship…
He painted several portraits of Prince Oscar, and the two shared an interest in art and culture…
Their close association continued when Oscar ascended to the throne, and Blommér remained in the royal service as a court painter…
This relationship with the prince and later the king helped elevate Blommér's status and artistic career...
Only Aristocratic and upper class families could afford commissioned portraits...
The sitter must be notable if a portrait was commissioned...
Historically, portrait paintings have primarily memorialized the rich and powerful, not slaves or servants...
A painted portrait was often seen as a luxury, they were painted for special occasions and important people...
“Prince Oscar, who, when he is King of Sweden, will be the first of that name, is a dark, well formed man, [with] a dash of the Hebrew in his physiognomy. Dark means Swarthy. You may see by the black curls of his hair, and his olive complexion, that he is NO true son of the North”
SOURCE;
(Robert Gordon Latham, “Norway, and the Norwegians: In Two Volumes, Volume 1”; 1840)
Olives naturally turn black as they ripen…
They start off green and change color as they mature on the tree, eventually turning black or dark purple when fully ripe…
“a dark, well formed man, [with] a dash of the Hebrew in his physiognomy. Dark means Swarthy”
“Going back to the path-breaking work of Sander L. Gilman in the late 1980s, scholars often assert that “a strong European tradition, dating back to the Middle Ages, maintained that the Jews were ‘black’ or at least swarthy” (Melamed 2003, p. 31)
“In medieval literature a theory prevailed in which the Jews were part of the black race, or were at least dark-skinned” (Shavit 2001, p. 182)
“The general ‘look’ of the Jew was considered to be like that of the black” (Parfitt 2013, p. 6)
“Jewish blackness sometimes means that the Jews were quite literally seen as black” (Gilman 1994, p. 372)
“The general consensus of the ethnological literature of the late nineteenth century was that the Jews were ‘black’ or, at least, ‘swarthy’” (Gilman 1994, p. 368)
“Prince Bernadotte, second son of Oscar ll of Sweden and Norway, resembles his father and his brothers only in his fine physique...his hair, beard and eyes are black and his complexion swarthy”
SOURCE;
(Leonard Bacon, Joseph Parrish Thompson, Richard Salter Storrs; “The Independent, Vol. 50”; 1898)
Oscar I was King of Sweden and Norway from March 8, 1844 until his death...
He was the second monarch of the House of Bernadotte...
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