SCAS News - 19 February, 2019

Portrait of Former SCAS Principal Björn Wittrock Unveiled

Last Friday, a portrait of former SCAS Principal Björn Wittrock was unveiled in conjunction with an event
held in honour of Wittrock and his contributions to research and to the foundation and development of the
Swedish Collegium. The portrait, which was unveiled by the artist Bo Larsson and Björn Wittrock himself,
was presented to the invited audience through a short conversation between Björn Wittrock, Bo Larsson and
Mikael Ahlund, the Acting Museum Director and Keeper of the Art Collection of Gustavianum, the Uppsala
University Museum. The portrait was commissioned by SCAS and now hangs at the Collegium.

About the portrait and the artist:

Bo Larsson
Björn Wittrock, 2019
Oil on canvas, 82 x 65 cm

Bo Larsson (b. 1945) is one of Sweden’s most prominent portrait painters. With a starting-point in a classical
portrait tradition, he has captured a number of faces from our own time - royalties, members of parliament,
representatives of learned societies, writers, artist colleagues and many others. He is represented in a number
of museums and collections, such as Nationalmuseum, Moderna museet, and Bonnier’s portrait collection, in
Stockholm.

A historical reference for the image of Björn Wittrock is the detail-sharp portraiture of the early 19th-century,
where the background and depicted objects suggest information about the model. In the portrait, Björn Wittrock
sits in the Thunberg Dining Room at SCAS in Uppsala. This 18th-century setting, where the Linnaeus disciple
Carl Peter Thunberg lived and worked, is marked by the engraved portrait of Thunberg in the left corner. The
flower engraving below, pinned to the wall, suggests the presence of botany also in the history of the Wittrock
family.

Read more about Björn Wittrock >>