The Movie Star in the Swedish National Portrait Gallery

Greta Garbo, born September 18 1905, was a Swedish actress who made a great career when the movie industry was blossoming in Hollywood. Born and raised in a simple home in Södermalm, Stockholm, she emigrated to America in 1925, where she later was granted citizenship and lived throughout her life. She died in New York 1990 at the age of 84, but had then been retired from the screen for almost 50 years. She is buried in Skogskyrkogården in Stockholm. Greta Garbo is one of the 20th century’s biggest movie stars and icons; nominated for the Academy Awards three times and admired for her strong yet subtle facial expressions, her beauty and her integrity, both on the screen and in her private life. Since 2018, Greta Garbo is pictured on the Swedish 100 SEK bill.

The Swedish National Portrait Gallery at Gripsholm Castle, the world’s oldest national portrait gallery, was founded in 1822 and is managed by Nationalmuseum.
The collection contains almost 5,000 portraits and continues to grow. This national treasure includes everything from 16th century royal portraits to the faces of famous contemporaries. Photographic portraits became a new aspect of the collection a mere decade ago, an obvious development as photography became the dominant form of portraiture.

From the very beginning the idea was that the portraits were to depict individuals who had made valuable contributions to Swedish life. For a long time this more or less meant members of the establishment, most of them elderly men. Today the selection has become wider and there are portraits of figures from all walks of life. It contains works by both Swedish and international artists – ranging from Alexander Roslin to Irving Penn. Here you can see all works of art in the collection portraying Greta Garbo

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