Decorative paintings of Jackarby hall

The decorative paintings of the hall of Jackarby Manor near Porvoo – Jakkarila in the established Finnish form – have been a central part of the National Museum’s main exhibition for most of the museum’s existence. Relatively few 18th-century ensembles of painted wallpapers have been preserved in Finland. Each of these is different and opens up a new perspective on Rococo and Gustavian interior art. The paintings of Jackarby hall, with their shepherd and hunting themes, are an excellent example of the delightful colours of Rococo interior design in the mid-18th century.

The main building of Jackarby Manor dates back to the early 1760s, and its appearance has remained largely unchanged. Part of the original fixed interior of the main building, such as the wall panelling, has been preserved, with the significant exception of the hall wallpapers acquired for the National Museum’s collections in the early 20th century.

The paintings made for the hall in the early 1760s have been seen as an intermediate form between Late Baroque and Rococo, partly due to their general dark colour. However, the colour scheme of the Rococo was apparently much more intense than is often thought. The hall is located on the corner of the manor building, so the layout of the wall paintings was initially different from that of the museum exhibition.

What makes Jackarby hall unique is its monumental ceiling painting that opens up to the clouds. The idea originated from Italian Renaissance art and was given the final, academic idiom in France in the 1660s.

The paintings in Jackarby hall were made by Johan Bromander (b. 1732), a Stockholm-based painter whose production or operation is otherwise unknown. In these paintings, he shows that he was very familiar with the examples and influences from France through the construction and decoration of the Royal Palace in Stockholm and that he was able to apply them to create a new ensemble in the same style in Jackarby in the then eastern part of Sweden.