Lorens Pasch the Younger

However, he decided on an artistic career after all and began an apprenticeship in his father's studio before going to Copenhagen, with introductions from his wealthy and influential uncle Johan Pasch.

Despite good offers of studio-apprenticeships and commissions from Sweden, he then set off for Paris in 1758 to complete his artistic education.

There he specialised in history painting in the studios of Eustache Le Sueur and François Boucher (though for financial reasons he also continued his training in portraiture) and became friends with fellow-Swede Alexander Roslin.

He fully completed his training in the studio of the French painter Guillaume Taraval, who in 1735 founded the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm.

He died unmarried in 1805 and due to his powerful portraits remains one of the most respected painters of the Gustavian era in Sweden.