45. OKÄND KONSTNÄR. Portrait of Lieutenant Colonel and Knight Lorentz Benedikt Gyllenpamp (1713-1785) painted in 1761.

Oil on canvas, 61 x 51 cm

Inscription on verso; “Öfwerste Lieutenanten vid Köngl. Lilliesvärska Regiment and Knight Welborne Herr Lorents Benedict Gyllenpamp
born on 1: June Åhr 1713, Afskilon 24 August Åhr 1761,
Died on 5 May 1785"

PROVENANCE: Christopher O'Regan Collection.

Christopher tells us:
The portrait, possibly painted by Johan Henrik Scheffel, is a fine example of how finely meshed the fabric that forms our history, and how many figures and events were linked to each other in a Sweden that was far more small-scale than today's.
Lorentz Benedikt Gyllenpamp, who was immortalized in 1761 as lieutenant colonel of the Hamiltonian Enlisted Regiment, and Knight of the Order of the Sword, was through his marriage to Anna Margareta Hellichia brother-in-law to none other than the famous captain Abraham Hellichius, who in September 1772 was ennobled Gustafschöld as thanks for his efforts in August when he secured Kristianstad in connection with the outbreak of what was to be the starting point of Gustaf III's coup d'état.
Unfortunately, one of Gyllenpamp's sons, Gustaf Bernt, was killed when, as a twenty-four-year-old prime adjutant of his uncle's regiment, he perished aboard the liner when it exploded during the break out of the Viborg Gulf during Gustaf III's War in July 1790. His father had died a few years ago, and with Gustaf Bernt the food died out.