Charles XI had a great interest in animals. His court painter Ehrenstrahl had to portray everything from polar bears to lapdogs. Many of these animal paintings are in either the National Portrait Gallery or the Nationalmuseum’s Drottningholm collection. Seventeen of them represent horses used personally by the king, all of them depicted life-size. They are portrayed as individuals, with their names given in the inscriptions. This is Blå Tigern (“Blue Tiger”), which is stated to be a “Turkish horse” originating in Ingria.