page_title: Stockholm Palace
section_title: The French artists' colony
hierarchical_section_title: Stockholm Palace / History / The first phase of building the new palace 1697–1709 / The French artists' colony
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: Kvittenser på utbetald lön i samband med bygget för Stockholms slott, omkring 1700, bland namnteckningar märkst "Nicodemus Tessin"
context_page_description: Stockholm Palace or the Royal Palace is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch. Stockholm Palace is on Stadsholmen, in Gamla stan in the capital, Stockholm. It neighbours the Riksdag building. The offices of the King, the other members of the Swedish Royal Family, and the Royal Court of Sweden are here. The palace is used for representative purposes by the King whilst performing his duties as the head of state.
  This royal residence has been in the same location by Norrström in the northern part of Gamla stan in Stockholm since the middle of the 13th century when the Tre Kronor Castle was built. In modern times the name relates to the building called Kungliga Slottet. The palace was designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger and erected on the same place as the medieval Tre Kronor Castle which was destroyed in a fire on 7 May 1697. Due to the costly Great Northern War which started in 1700, construction of the palace was halted in 1709, and not recommenced until 1727—six years after the end of the war. When Tessin the Younger died in 1728, the palace was completed by Carl Hårleman who also designed a large part of its Rococo interior.
context_section_description: The largest group of artists came from France. Between the years 1693 and 1699, sixteen French masons, painters and foundrymen arrived at Stockholm. At Tessin's initiative, the craftsmen had received an invitation through the Swedish diplomatic envoy in Paris, Daniel Cronström, to come and work for the Swedish king. They were offered yearly wages and accommodations. The sculptor René Chauveau started out with a salary of 1,000 riksdaler (approximately equal to US$49,550 in 2014) per year; he was among the highest paid in the group. Some artists had brought their families with them and they formed a French artists' colony. The family members often participated in the construction work. The whole group is referred to as de fransöske hantwerkarne (the French craftsmen). Most of them had received their education at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in Paris and had worked at King Louis XIV's large palace construction at Versailles. Most of the craftsmen were Catholic, and they lived and worked in a very tight-knit community close to the French embassy in Stockholm. They could practice their Catholic faith within the colony, but this was strictly forbidden in the rest of Sweden at that time. When to building of the palace came to a halt in 1709, the colony was dissolved. Some craftsmen, such as René Chauveau and his family, returned to France, but most of them remained in Sweden until they died during the first part of the 18th century.
caption: Quittances for salaries paid, among the names is "Nicodemus Tessin", circa 1700
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