STOCKHOLM.- The 2024 Portrait of Honour depicts songwriter and music producer extraordinaire Max Martin, and was taken by photographer Mikael Jansson. The Portrait of Honour will be unveiled at Gripsholm Castle on 13 October, where it will become part of the collection in the Swedish National Portrait Gallery.
Max Martin (Martin Sandberg) has achieved phenomenal success as a songwriter and music producer ever since the late 1990s, writing songs for a whole host of global superstars, including Adele, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd and Ariana Grande. Nowadays, he is often cited as the most influential songwriter and producer in the world. He has received many awards and accolades for his work, not least the Polar Music Prize in 2016. In the 1990s, Max Martin was part of the legendary music production collective Cheiron in Stockholm, led by Denniz Pop (Dag Volle). It was here that he had his first massive hit with Britney Spears’ Baby one more time, a song that took the number one spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and since then, he has had a further 26 number ones as a songwriter.
The portrait of Max Martin is by Mikael Jansson, who has also enjoyed huge success over several decades on the global scene. He has worked as a fashion photographer for illustrious magazines such as Vogue, Interview and Harper’s Bazaar, as well as publishing a number of books and producing exhibitions to great acclaim. One such exhibition was Witnesses, a collection of portraits of Holocaust survivors.
In a statement, Max Martin says he feels honoured and grateful to be made part of the National Portrait Collection:
“Considering who has featured in the past, it feels almost unreal to have a hard rocker from Stenhamra moving into Gripsholm Castle. And getting to work with one of the leading portrait photographers of our time, Mikael Jansson, obviously makes it even more special.”
The portrait of Max Martin contains a level of refined detail that may not be immediately apparent. The T-shirt is of course an homage to Prince, one of Martin’s major influences. But the design on the T-shirt is also part of the composition. Martin’s hands – which appear to be moving to music – interact with Prince’s hand. While Martin has his eyes closed, Prince is looking at the viewer with one eye.
The Swedish National Portrait Gallery at Gripsholm Castle, the oldest of its kind in the world, is open to the public. Managed by Nationalmuseum, the portrait collection was established in 1822, and since 1959 has seen new works added each year, including a Portrait of Honour – depicting a deserving Swedish man or woman– donated by the Gripsholm Association. The choice of subject and artists is decided in close cooperation with Nationalmuseum. The Gripsholm Association was created in 1937 with the purpose of promoting and developing Gripsholm Castle and its collections. The portrait collection now contains over 5,000 portraits of Swedish luminaries, with previous Portraits of Honour featuring Benny Andersson, Alice Babs, Ingmar Bergman, Hédi Fried, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Alva Myrdal, Birgit Nilsson and Svante Pääbo, amongst many others.
