Portrait Medallion Depicting Carl Michael Bellman as Bacchus Signed V. Borgman

A 19th century portrait plaster medallion depicting Carl Michael Bellman (1740-1795), as Bacchus, the wine god. After Johan Tobias Sergel (1740-1814) . Signed V. Borgman. Viktor Borgman was a sculptor in the 19th century. His artist production was very small but Nordiska Museet in Stockholm have 3 of his works. This portrait medallion has a very nice original patina and character.

Carl Michael Bellman (1740 – 1795) was a Swedish songwriter, composer, musician, poet and entertainer. He is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a powerful influence in Swedish music, as well as in Scandinavian literature, to this day. He has been compared to Shakespeare, Beethoven, Mozart, and Hogarth, but his gift, using elegantly rococo classical references in comic contrast to sordid drinking and prostitution, at once regretted and celebrated in song, is unique.

Bellman is best known for two collections of poems set to music, Fredman’s epistles (Fredmans epistlar) and Fredman’s songs (Fredmans sånger). Each consists of about 70 songs. The general theme is drinking, but the songs “most ingeniously” combine words and music to express feelings and moods ranging from humorous to elegiac, romantic to satirical.

Bellman’s patrons included King Gustav III of Sweden, who called him a master improviser. Bellman’s songs continue to be performed and recorded by musicians from Scandinavia and in other languages, including English, French, German, Italian and Russian. His legacy further includes a museum in Stockholm and a society that fosters interest in him and his work.

Johan Tobias Sergel (1740–1814) was a Swedish celebrated neoclassical sculptor and artist. He studied in Paris and Rome and had many commissions from King Gustav III. His works can be find in many museums around the world. The National museum has 3 works by Sergel depicting Bellman as bacchus.

Bacchus is the god of the grape-harvest, wine making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre.