01 work, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Hugo Birger's Sten Sture frees the Danish Queen from captivity in the Wadstena, with Footnotes #220

Hugo Birger, (Sweden, 1854-1887)

Sten Sture frees the Danish Queen, Christina of Saxony, from captivity in the Wadstena, c. 1876. 

Oil on canvas

137 x 193 cm.

Private collection

Sold for SEK65,000 in Jun 2022

Christina of Saxony (born Torgau, 25 December 1461 – died Odense, 8 December 1521), was Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden as the wife of King John.

When the War of Deposition against King Hans and Dano-Swedish War (1501–1512) took place later that same year, John left Sweden for Denmark in August 1501 in the company of Edel Jernskjæg. He left Christina, who was at that time too ill to travel, in charge of the garrison of the Castle of Tre Kronor in Stockholm as regent and as moral support for his followers.

From September 1501 until 6 May 1502, Queen Christina was besieged by the Swedish rebels. This was one of the hardest sieges known during the Kalmar Union, during which a garrison of 1000 men was reduced to 70 out of plague and starvation.

On 9 May 1502, Queen Christina surrendered to the Swedish Regent Sten Sture the Elder. According to the peace settlement, was to be kept at a convent in Stockholm until she could travel back to Denmark. When she surrendered her position, she turned herself over to lady Ingeborg Tott, who met her at the castle and followed her to a convent.

She was kept first at the Black Friars' Monastery of Stockholm and then at the Grey Friar's Abbey, Stockholm. However, the treaty was broken by Sten Sture: when John had a ship sent to Stockholm to collect her, the regent had her taken from Stockholm to the Vadstena Abbey in a form of captivity. In October 1503, she was finally released and escorted to the Danish border by Sten Sture, where she was met by her son Christian in Halmstad. More on Christina of Saxony

Hugo Birger (born Hugo Birger Peterson) (12 January 1854 – 17 June 1887) was a Swedish painter.

Born in Stockholm, Birger studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts from 1870 to 1877. In 1877, he was awarded with the "Royal medal" for his painting Syndafallet. 

Birger moved to Paris in 1877, and spent the summer of 1878 in Barbizon with Carl Larsson and Carl Skånberg. He debuted at the Paris Salon the following year with Rue Gabrielle (1879, now in the Gothenburg Museum of Art). He submitted his painting Toaletten (English: The Toilet), which depicts a lady in front of the toilet mirror, to the Paris Salon in 1880. From 1881 to 1882, Birger visited Spain and Northern Africa. His largest painting from Spain was La feria ("The Feast Day", 1882, Gothenburg Museum of Art), which depicts a breakfast in Granada.

Birger suffered from health issues in 1887 and died at Hotel Mollberg in Helsingborg, Sweden, on 17 June 1887, on his way home from France. More on Hugo Birger

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