Lars Jacob von Röök

Together with Gustaf Söderberg (1799-1875), von Röök is today recognized as one of the pioneers of Swedish plein air painting. The majority of von Röök´s known work are executed in Italy which he visited as many as five times; 1808, 1815-18, 1820-24, 1826-30 and 1834.

Von Röök was trained as a military engineer. In 1795 he was elected Page of Honor to King Gustaf IV Adolf and conducted a number of journeys on the continent in his service. In 1809 he resigned in order to focus on a career as an artist. The same year he compiled the catalogue of the Finspong Collection in French, one of Sweden’s most important art collections. In 1811 he was made Servant to the King Carl XIV Johan Bernadotte and in 1814 Embassy Cavalier and served as attaché at the Swedish Legation in Madrid under J. G. De la Gardie (1814-15) and from 1815 at the Swedish Legation in Florenz under Claes Lagersvärd. In Madrid he had the good fortune to meet Goya. On is fourth visit to Italy between 1826-30 he functioned as a kind of care keeper of the dukedom Galliera northwest of Bologna, created by Napoleon for Crownprincess Josephine of Leuchtenburg at the time of her birth. Already during his first journey to Italy in 1808 von Röök moved in artists circles in Rome and mentions in his diary that he had sketched in Tivoli together with the French landscape painter Pierre Athanes Chauvin (T. Gunnarsson, Friluftsmåleri före friluftsmåleriet. Oljestudien i svenskt landskapsmåleri 1800-1850, 1989, p. 240). He also mentions that he met the German landscape painters J. A. Koch, J. C. Reinhardt and M. Von Rohden and the Dane J. L. Lund. During his second journey to Italy he visited the German landscape painters F. L. Cartel and Vogel von Vogelstein in Rome and in 1821 on his third stay in Italy, Michallon and Granet together with J. C. Dahl. In 1819 he published ”Plan af Pompeji med beskrivning” [A description of Pompei] and in 1824 Anteckningar under en resa på Sicilien af en svensk [Notes under a journey to Sicily by a Swede), with six lithographs after his drawings, based on a journey he had conducted in April to May the previous year.

On his return to Sweden in 1830 he was employed at Kongl. Museum, in Stockholm where he rearranged the collection on modern foreign practice and published several catalogues of the collection. In 1837 he was appointed Court intendent and in 1839 he was elected to the board at the Royal Academy. Von Röök was also active as an architect. He designed a gazebo in the park at Finspång Castle in 1821 and Kåreholm Mannerhouse built in 1823. He also made several proposals for a building to house Nationalmuseum (inaugurated 1866). In 1850 he resigned but remained curator of King Oscar I´s private collection whom also engaged him in the decoration of Haga Castle in Stockholm.

(Intresset att avbilda kungliga vasaslott fick en renässans under 1800-talets 1:a kvartal. För samtiden framstod dessa som symboler för Sveriges ärorikas förflutna. Efter franska revolutionen och förlusten av Finland 1809, vilket sågs som en nationell katastrof, hade de nationalistiska tankegångarna åter tagit fart. En vilja att ena folket trots förlusterna, samtidigt som en viss trötthet
gentemot upplysningens rationalism infann sig, ledde till ett förhärligande av forntiden och Sveriges ärorika historia. 1811 grundades Götiska förbundet och 1815 Manhemsförbundet, vars namn refererar till namnet på Sverige i Snorre Sturlassons Heimskringla. Bägge förbunden ville återuppliva göternas "frihetsanda" och "mannamod". Man lyfte fram Nordens gemensamma hjältehistoria, de fornnordiska myterna, vikingabragderna. Esaias Tegnérs stora epos Frithiofs saga blev känt i varje svenskt hem, Geijers "Vikingen" likaså.)