Princess Eugénie of Sweden

Princess Eugénie of Sweden and Norway (Charlotta Eugenia Augusta Amalia Albertina; 24 April 1830 – 23 April 1889) was a member of the royal House of Bernadotte and a philanthropist and amateur artist.

Biography Eugénie was born to King Oscar I of Sweden and Josephine of Leuchtenberg as their fourth child and only daughter. She was named after her maternal grandfather, Eugène de Beauharnais.

She later wrote of her childhood: "During the years of my childhood I never had a girl of my age for a friend or playmate. Nor did I ever have a doll, but exclusively played boy's games with my brothers." She particularly enjoyed the summers at Tullgarn Palace. Her closest friend was Prince Gustaf, Duke of Uppland, her favorite among her siblings. She was later to say, that during her childhood, she had the wish to be a boy just like her brothers were. Princess Eugénie was placed under the supervision of her senior lady in waiting Karen Anker, and educated with her siblings by the royal court chaplain dr J. G. Lundberg Anker and Lundberg were both dominant personalities, which is regarded to have formed the consciously submissive character of Eugénie. Early on, she had a great interest in the arts, and was active as a composer, painter, sculptor and writer.

The year of 1852 signified a great crisis in her life. This year, the royal family fell ill during a visit to Oslo. Her favorite brother and closest friend, Prince Gustaf, Duke of Uppland, died, which had a great effect on her emotional life.

She studied painting and drawing. As a painter, she is known for her watercolor paintings of life at the royal court. The images illustrate both everyday court life as well as outings, travelling and balls, display a humorous tone and has a similar style as those of Fritz von Dardel. She is regarded to have had true talent as a painter, but her social position and gender created some difficulty in her attempts to develop her talent, as it was not considered suitable for her to study human male adult anatomy: her mother refused to allow her to study nude models. Later in life, she supported the efforts of her nephew Prince Eugen, who also became a painter.

She was also active as a sculptor, and a student of J. P. Molin. Some of her designs were made into porcelain ornaments in Rörstrand and Gustavsberg. Her mother's refusal to allow her to study human anatomy created difficulties to develop this talent as well. This was partially solved after an incident described by Fritz von Dardel. Upon a visit to the princess, he discovered that she was sculpturing a small statue of soldier in clay. She used the uniform of a soldier as a model, but this was not sufficient, as the legs of the soldiers did not look realistic. To assist her, Fritz von Dardel modeled his legs for her. They were interrupted by the queen dowager, who did not approve of a male model. The statue, however, which depicted a Norwegian pipe blower, turned out well after Dardel had modeled for it, and was made into a porcelain statue at Rörstrand. The incident of Dardel's modeling for Eugenie also proved benefiting for her development as an artist: after this, her mother allowed her to study the human anatomy of children, who were allowed to model for her. The perhaps most known piece of art attributed to her is a porcelain figurine of a dog and a child sitting opposite each other, entitled Kan du inte tala? ("Can't You Speak?"), which was manufactured at Gustavsberg and became a popular ornament. She also designed an allegory of faith and the apostles of Peter and Paul for her mother's chapel. Her work was represented at the Stockholm Art Exhibition of 1866. In November 1873, she was inducted as an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.

As a writer, Eugenie published the conventional Svenska prinsessor ("Swedish Princesses") in 1864. She also translated Korsets Skola (The School of the Cross) by M. F. Roos from German. One of her friends was the writer Lina Sandell.

Eugenie used the income from her art to finance her charity. She eventually stopped her art production for health reasons and turned entirely to charity.

Philanthropic work

Princess Eugénie was honored as a philanthropist by C. D. af Wirsén in his poem »De lidandes furstinna» ("The Princess of the tormented") from 1890.

Her philanthropic work was focused on Gotland and her summer villa Fridhem. In 1866, she founded an orphanage for boys, and three years later, an orphanage for girls, both attached to her villa and under her personal supervision. To its benefit, she founded Protection Societies in Visby.

In 1869, she founded a Gotlands sjukhem (Gotland Hospital) for the terminally ill, financed by the jewels from her grandmother Désirée Clary. In 1875, she created an association to support the fishermen of the west coast of Gotland. In 1879, she became the chairperson of a relief society for poor, terminally ill, invalids and handicapped children: through this society, she opened a home in Sundbyberg in 1882, completed in the Eugeniahemmet in Solna, named after her (1886).

In 1881, she and bishop L. A. Anjou co-founded Visby stadsmission (Visby City Mission). In 1885, she and her friend Adéle Rudenschöld co-founded an association to the protection of animals, from 1888 renamed Gotlands djurskyddsförening (The Gotland Animal's Protection Society).

She also supported the blind and poor students. She contributed to the Fjellstedt School in Uppsala, as well as the Lapplandsmissionen (Lappland Mission).

Sample of compositions Piano compositions Drottning Josephinas polonaise, (Queen Josephines polonaise) (1854) Louisa vals (The waltz of Louisa) (1858?) La priere (1844) Sorgmarsch, (Marsch of mourning), to the memory of Queen Louise (1871) Tullgarns-galopp (The Tullgarn gallop) (1853)

Songs Novemberkvällen (November evening) Fiskaren (The fisherman) (1850) Romans vid piano (Romance at the piano) (1859) Sång Orden af Tibell (The Song order of Tibell) (1863) Augusta-dagen (The day of Augusta) (1865)

Arms and monogram

Ancestry