Love Scene

The Swedish artist Carl Gustav Klingstedt became especially well known for his representations of gallant scenes. In this miniature in grisaille technique he portrayed a gentleman courting a lady with a posy of flowers. Though her posture still conveys a hesitant aloofness, the loosened ribbons of her bodice, her slightly opened mouth and her desiring gaze are already sending out a signal of consent.A second lady stands behind her and seems to be edging her into the gentleman’s arms. Her role in this scene is that of a matchmaker.
The gentleman’s clothes and hairstyle characterise him as a member of the upper class. He wears a close fitting coat with wide blue cuffs, a powdered wig and a tricorn hat. He is the dominating figure in this miniature, being the only one that Klingstedt gave a few colourful accents on his sleeves and hat ribbon, to single him out from the grey tints of the grisaille painting. The lady, on the other hand, is painted in plain, pastoral clothing, which together with her hairstyle and her somewhat naive facial expression indicates her lower social standing.
The scene takes place in front of an intimated a park landscape emerging from the erotically charged pastoral idyll, which was very popular in court circles of the 18th century. Court life, rigidly regulated by ceremony and etiquette,was contrasted with a stylised natural idyll, a staged illusion where the seduction of a young girl whose apparent reluctance enhances the thrill was a favourite theme.
J. S. O.