Christian II of Denmark
by GOSSART, Jan, Pen and brown ink, over black chalk, 269 x 216 mm
Christian II (1481-1559) was King of Denmark and Norway (1513-23) and Sweden (1520-23). He was hated by the nobility in Denmark and Norway for his system of taxation. Jutland (Denmark) revolted and gave the Danish crown to Frederick I in 1523. Christian fled to the Netherlands, but attempted to regain his throne in 1531 by invading Norway. He was captured by Danish forces in 1532 and imprisoned until his death.
Despite his nomadic life, Christian seems to have been one of the most important patrons of Gossart’s late career. he commissioned the artist to design his wife’s tomb and epitaph after her death in 1526 and to paint a portrait of the royal couple’s three children. Furthermore, he commissioned two woodcut portraits and the present drawing.
Christian’s eagerness to be portrayed by leading artists was evident as early as 1515,several years before he was deposed, and the many portraits of Christian in different media rival in quality those of almost any other sitter in the early sixteenth century. Gossart’s portrait drawing of Christian is on a par with his best portrait paintings. It is beyond doubt that Gossart knew the king personally.