538. MINIATURE PAINTING, 1780s, portrait depicting Count Reich Marshal Axel von Fersen (1755-1810) as a 28-year-old.

Bust from left, wearing gray coat and black-red waistcoat, gouache on ivory, mounted in brass frame, 5.2 x 4.4 cm Registered in the Swedish Portrait Archive, SPA 1921:470, mentioned as possibly executed by Peter Adolf Hall. Compare Georges Gorvel's engraving after the miniature, in the National Museum's collections, inventory number NMTiG 1019a PROVENANCE: Count August Gyldenstolpe (1849-1928) married to Norah Plunkett (1871-1956), Åtvidaberg Probably by inheritance within the von Fersen family, Count August Gyldenstolpe's father Carl August Gyldenstolpe (1800-1872) was married to Hedvig Vilhelmina Lovisa von Fersen (1816-1879), her father Fabian von Fersen (1762-1818) was the brother of Axel von Fersen. In Fabian von Fersen's estate record from 1818, regarding the Fersen house and the terrace in the Blasieholmen quarter in Stockholm, it appears that there were several family portraits, boxes with portraits and a portrait under glass.

LITERATURE: Albin Roosval, ed.: Swedish home in words and pictures, Stockholm 1914, page 123, the miniature mentioned in Count August Gyldenstolpe's home at the time at the Swedish Legation Hotel in Paris Alma Söderhjelm: Axel von Fersen's diary, part 1, Stockholm 1925, the miniature is depicted in color on the cover of part 1; page 135, pictured Sixten Strömbom: Index of Swedish portraits 1500-1850, volume I, Stockholm 1935, mentioned Hans Axel von Fersen, also known as Axel von Fersen dy, born 4 September 1755 in Jakobs parish in Stockholm, died 20 June 1810 in Stockholm (lynched), was a Swedish Count, Lieutenant General, Reich Marshal, Ambassador and one of the lords of the realm. He was the son of Field Marshal Axel von Fersen d.ä. and Hedvig Catharina De la Gardie.

Axel von Fersen was a military man and politician as well as a typical representative of the court style at Gustav III's court. He was the favorite of the French Queen Marie-Antoinette and planned and participated in the failed escape attempt of the French royal family in 1791. He participated in the American War of Independence, 1780-1783, on the side of the colonialists against the British crown. He met a dramatic death when he was lynched due to false rumors of having been involved in the death of Swedish Crown Prince Karl August in 1810.

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