Biography

Swedish painter and pastellist. He was orphaned early and brought up by his grandfather, the goldsmith Fredrik Richter (1636-1714). In 1710 he was briefly apprenticed to David von Krafft (1655-1724). Against von Krafft's advice, and at his own expense, he travelled to Paris in 1717. He studied first with Hyacinthe Rigaud, Nicolas de Largillierre and Jean-François de Troy, learning to paint in a Régence style less heavy and serious than that taught by von Krafft in Sweden. He also studied drawing under Pierre-Jacques Cazes at the École des Beaux-Arts.

In 1720 Rosalba Carriera came to Paris from Italy, bringing with her the fashionable technique of drawing in pastel chalks. Lundberg became her pupil and within a year had mastered the medium, charming the Parisians with his portraits. Until the arrival of Carriera, he had worked only in oils, but he now turned exclusively to pastels. He received portrait commissions from Louis XV (reg 1715-74), notably for those of his young queen Maria Leszczynska and of her parents Stanislav I Leszczynski and Catherine Opalinska (both 1725; private collection), who at that time were living at Chambord. Through the agency of Carl Gustav Tessin, Lundberg was received (reçu) at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1741. As his morceaux de réception he executed two portraits of François Boucher and Charles-Joseph Natoire, shown at the Salon of 1741.

In 1745 he returned to Sweden where he worked as a court painter.