Carl Fredrik Hill - King Gustavus Adolphus at the Battle of Lützen

Carl Fredrik Hill (1849–1911) Sweden

King Gustavus Adolphus at the Battle of Lützen

ink and colored crayon on paper
unframed: 21 × 29 cm (8.3 × 11.4 in)
framed by Stockholm Förgyllning och Bildhuggeri, 2025

Provenance:
Director Jackie Neuman Collection, Stockholm;
Bukowskis, Decemberauktionen + Asiatiska 597, 13 December 2016, lot no. 205

Condition report:
Inspected and reviewed by paper conservator Lotta Möller, 2025. Please contact us for more information. 

Essay
Carl Fredrik Hill’s drawing King Gustavus Adolphus at the Battle of Lützen is a visionary reimagining of a famous historical event. The composition centers on the Swedish king amidst the chaos of the 1632 battle, rendered not with literal realism but with dreamlike intensity. Hill depicts the monarch in vibrant red, highlighting his commanding presence and characteristic beard. To the left, disorderly ranks of soldiers with rifles are sketched in ink, their forms fragmented and overlapping. Across the scene drift several horses rendered in blue, their hue could be an indication that they are fallen in the battle. 

This work belongs to Hill’s late period, when he created thousands of imaginative drawings after his mental breakdown in 1878. No longer painting in oil, Hill turned to paper and modest media to create what became inner landscapes: visionary scenes from both memory and imagination. The subject of Gustavus Adolphus’ death at Lützen was a defining moment in Swedish history, and likely drawn from printed sources available to Hill in his family home. He frequently reinterpreted such references through the lens of his psychological state, transforming them into scenes saturated with symbolic meaning.

Rather than documenting battlefield tactics, the drawing conveys emotional essence. The red-clad king stands resolute amid chaos, while the bluish horse apparitions suggest the dead or the dying, haunting the space like phantoms. The contrast of bold color and spectral line generates a jarring dreamscape. Hill’s draftsmanship heightens this through distortions and gaps that make the viewer question what is physical and what is imagined.

This drawing exemplifies Hill’s ability to merge historical narrative with introspective symbolism. It can be viewed as a private vision, a stage on which the artist explores heroism, loss, and transcendence. As with many of his late works, the psychological depth overtakes literal representation. Gustavus Adolphus becomes not just a national icon, but a vessel for Hill’s inner drama, a figure who stands against invisible forces of destruction.

Though largely unappreciated in his lifetime, Hill’s visionary drawings are now considered vital contributions to the development of psychological and modernist art. This piece foreshadows aspects of Expressionism and Surrealism, blending history with hallucination in a style that was ahead of its time. It offers a compelling portrait of the battle within both nation and mind, rendered by one of Sweden’s most singular artistic voices.

Sources

• Bukowskis auction catalogue (Stockholm), Important Spring Sale 2017, Lot 698

• Bukowskis auction note, Modern Art & Design, Lot 740

• Wikipedia: "Carl Fredrik Hill"

• Auctionet (Stockholms Auktionsverk) catalogue, Fine Art & Antiques Autumn 2023, Lot 735

• Scandinavia House exhibition text: Carl Fredrik Hill: Swedish Visionary and Modernist (2009)