Adolph Ulrich Wertmüller

• Wertmüller, Adolph Ulric : Mademoiselle Charlotte Eckerman (1759 - 1791), 1784, 65 x 54, oil, canvas (S 107, Sinebrychoff) (29.0 kB)

Wertmüller's portrait of the sparkling actress in the generous antique-style dress has always fascinated people. Oscar Levertin described the work in 1888:

...a brilliant apparition with playful eyes and beautiful hair. The young but mature woman, radiant and throbbing with life, outlines herself sharply on the cool bluegreen background.

Paul Sinebrychoff wrote to Bukowski in 1903.

I'd like to have a Wertmüller like the charming Mademoiselle Eckerman at Baron Rehbinder's.

Ten years later he acquired the picture from Rehbinder's estate.

In addition to Sinebrychoff's, three other versions of the painting were known. One had been in the family of Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt's illegitimate son, General Clairfelt, a second in Tidö Castle in Sweden, and a third in Armfelt's Åminne in Finland. It was generally accepted that the portrait had a connection with Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, Gustav III's famous court favourite, but there was disagreement on which of Armfelt's two mistresses was the subject. The candidates were the actress colleagues, Mlles. L'Eclair and Eckerman.

In his article Hvem var hon Looström presented the case for Mlle L'Eclair, Armfelt's mistress in Paris in 1780. Four years later Armfelt paid a new visit to Paris in Gustav III's entourage and called again on Mlle. L'Eclair. He discovered he had a son, Maurice, conceived during the previous sojourn. Later he took the boy to Sweden and gave him the surname Clairfelt. One version of the portrait came to General Clairfelt, and his descendants regarded it as the portrait of the family's founding mother. Looström therefore deduced that Armfelt, who in 1784 had commissioned Wertmüller to paint his well-known portrait in Scythian dress, had on the same occasion commissioned a portrait of his son's mother.

Looström had not seen Wertmüller's papers, which were brought to Sweden in 1912. According to the painter's records, in 1784 Armfelt commissioned two portraits of Mlle. Eckerman, and she herself later a third one. There is no mention of Mlle.L'Eclair. According to Looström, Armfelt only went to supper at Mlle. Eckerman's, but apparently Armfelt thought that their relationship merited having her portrait painted. The Sinebrychoff version had once belonged to Count Germund Cederhjelm, who was an attaché at the Swedish embassy in Paris in 1784. K. K. Meinander guessed that the version was one of the two commissioned by Armfelt, given in friendship to Cederhjelm.

Charlotte Eckerman was the daughter of a captain of cavalry. Her childhood home broke up and Charlotte had to fend for herself while she was still very young. As a beautiful and talented girl she was taken into the Royal Theatre. She became the dangerous and intrigant mistress of the King's younger brother, Duke Carl. Charlotte Eckerman managed to irk Gustav III so badly that she decided to leave the country while she still could. She settled down as a courtisane in Paris, where she was happy to receive old acquaintances from Stockholm court circles.