Portrait of Honour 2025: Sarah Sjöström

Publicerad 2025-11-13

The 2025 Portrait of Honour depicts swimmer Sarah Sjöström and was taken by photographer Magnus Ragnvid. The Portrait of Honour will be unveiled at Gripsholm Castle on 23 November and will become part of the collection at the Swedish National Portrait Gallery. Later on this autumn it will be included in the exhibition Portraits! at Nationalmuseum.

Sarah Sjöström has been one of the world’s top swimmers for more than fifteen years. She got her big break at the age of fourteen in 2008 with a sensational European Championship gold medal, and has since won 98 medals in international competitions – more than any other European swimmer has ever achieved. Her most recent major successes were her victories in the 50 and 100-metre freestyle at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Freestyle and butterfly are her specialities, and she excels in short-distance events. She has set numerous world records and currently holds three world records in freestyle and butterfly.

Sarah Sjöström gave birth to her first child in August this year. Magnus Ragnvid’s portrait was taken not long before the baby was born, and shows a very pregnant world-class swimmer in profile. She is wearing a dress – designed by Lars Wallin – reminiscent of the draped fabric familiar from sculptures of Greek and Roman gods. The dress may also evoke an image of running water.

Photographer Magnus Ragnvid has been based in Stockholm since the mid-1990s, but has also worked periodically in Berlin, Copenhagen and London. He has worked with many types of images – portraits, photos for cookery books, fashion features, advertising – and, more recently, he has been working with moving images as well. His photos have been presented in numerous exhibitions, and Familiar Face – an exhibition about women who have influenced him – was presented in Klippan, his hometown, in 2020.

The Swedish National Portrait Gallery at Gripsholm Castle is the world’s oldest national portrait gallery. It was founded in 1822 and is managed by Nationalmuseum. Several new works have been added to the portrait collection each year since 1959 – including a Portrait of Honour depicting a prominent Swede, which is donated to the collection by the Gripsholm Association. The subject and artist are selected in collaboration with Nationalmuseum.

The Gripsholm Association was created in 1937 with the purpose of supporting the “preservation and enhancement” of Gripsholm Castle and its collections. The portrait collection contains over 5,000 portraits of Swedish people, with previous Portraits of Honour featuring Benny Andersson, Alice Babs, Ingmar Bergman, Hédi Fried, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Max Martin, Alva Myrdal, Birgit Nilsson and Svante Pääbo. Gripsholm Castle and the Swedish National Portrait Gallery are part of the government’s Cultural Canon for Sweden, which was presented earlier this autumn.