75. JOHAN GUSTAF WÄSTRÖM (FÖDD 1750-60-TALET-DÖD EFTER 1807). Portrait of Mrs. Helena Wettersten (1708-1786).

Signed and dated J. Wäström 1782 on verso. Oil on canvas, 74 x 57 cm.

Inscription on the back; “Fru Helena Wettersten, born Mats Svensson in Aug: 1709, Married 1728 to Kÿrchoherden Herr Mag. Carl Ulric Wettersten in Herrestad and Ingelstad, painted in February m: 1782 by J Waström”.

PROVENANCE: Christopher O'Regan Collection

Christopher tells us:
Of the only fifteen known portraits by Johan Gustaf Wäström's hand, three are on sale, of which this is one of them. And about the artist himself we have surprisingly little knowledge; in fact, we do not even know what decade he came into the world, but it is assumed that he was born in Landskrona, and according to records he would have received his education in Copenhagen under the famous Jens Juel; something one could possibly imagine in his work. The model of the portrait, Helena Wettersten, born Helena Svensson, was married in 1728 in Karlshamn to vicar Carl Ulric Wettersten, which, interestingly, suggests that the artist Wäström seems to have worked in Karlshamn in 1728, in view of the golden wedding couple Cervin, which he also immortalized there in 1780, and which is sold at this auction.