Running alongside and partially integrated with the exhibition on artist Johan Tobias Sergel, Nationalmuseum is opening a smaller-scale exhibition about Adolf Ludvig Gustav Fredrik Albert Badin, also known as Couschi.

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.