Waldemarsudde

We welcome Dan as our host this week, and the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge this time is to capture moments that break the boundaries of our everyday life.

Today I have chosen to write about a Swedish prince who broke free from his life as a royal and from the conventions and norms he was expected to follow. To feel Unbound. I hope this twist is OK with you, Dan!

Prince Eugen of Sweden was the son of King Oscar II and Sophia of Nassau.

Showing early artistic promise, he studied in Paris, and went on to become one of Sweden’s most prominent landscape painters.

We visited his home in Stockholm, at the beautiful Waldemarsudde.

After finishing high school, Prince Eugen studied art history at Uppsala University. He did not make the decision to pursue a career in painting easily, not least because of his royal status.

Prince Eugen was very open-minded and never married, in an era when royal princes almost always found princesses to wed. His homosexual orientation was unknown to the general public.

In this gallery, we see the prince painting, and next to him another famous Swedish painter, Carl Larsson. His home Waldemarsudde, and pieces from his collections. The last painting was my favourite of his own paintings, The Blue Villa.

Prins Eugen loved Norway, and was also a prince of Norway before the union was dissolved in 1905. He loved flowers, and one of his famous designs is a flower pot – Waldemarsuddekrukan.

Throughout his life Prince Eugen was an art collector, a designer and a supporter of fellow artists. He was also involved in many cultural organisations and committees. He bequeathed his villa Waldemarsudde at Djurgården in Stockholm, and its collections, to the nation. It is now one of Sweden’s most popular museums.

Sincere thanks to Dan for this interesting challenge, “unbound”. Please be sure to visit and link to his amazing post here, and remember to use the Lens-Artists Tag. Thanks also to Dawn for last week’s Fences challenge, and to you for the incredible variety of responses. Finally, we hope you’ll join us next week when Janet of This, That and The Other Thing will join us as our final Guest Host of the month. Until then, please stay safe, be kind and enjoy the journey.