Enfilade

Gustaf Lundberg, Portrait of Adolph Ludvig Gustav Fredrik Albert Couschi, known as Badin, First Footman, Court Secretary, and Titular Assessor, 1775, pastel (Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, NMGrh 1455).

From the Swedish Nationalmuseum in Stockholm:

Badin: Beyond Surface and Mask

Nationalmuseum, 19 February – 9 August 2026

Running alongside and partially integrated with the exhibition on artist Johan Tobias Sergel, Nationalmuseum presents a smaller-scale exhibition about Adolf Ludvig Gustav Fredrik Albrecht Couschi, also known as Badin (ca.1747–1822).

Badin is thought to have been born in 1747, seven years after Sergel, as a slave on the island of Saint Croix, a Danish colony in the Caribbean. He was later taken to Europe, where he was eventually presented as a ‘gift’ to Sweden’s Queen Lovisa Ulrika. The exhibition seeks to create a nuanced and multifaceted understanding of how a person of African descent rose to become a significant figure in Swedish society of the time.

Nationalmuseum has commissioned a new film about Badin by artist Salad Hilowle that will appear in the exhibition.