Douglas House (Douglaska Palatset, built in 1654) was Jacquette’s principal home between ages 14 and 20. Court Chancellor Wetterstedt leased these fine apartments (probably on the upper floors) shortly before he married Jacquette’s mother, Aurora De Geer, in November 1811. Located on Blasieholm Square across from the Fersen Palace, just a few doors away from the Foreign Ministers’ Residence, Douglas House enjoys one of the best locations in Stockholm. The building’s facade was altered in 1874, but one can stand in Blasieholm Square and look up, imagining Jacquette sitting in her favorite window seat and gazing past the Fersen Palace and Lake Mälaren to Stockholm Palace, where Prince Oscar lived only a short distance away. The Wetterstedts lived at Douglas House until 1823, when Gustaf af Wetterstedt was appointed foreign minister and the household moved down the street to the Foreign Ministers’ Residence (Utrikesministerhotellet). The celebrated courtier and artist Fritz von Dardel, whose drawings of Stockholm society and court life are uniquely of value in understanding this period, lived at Douglas House beginning in the 1870s. His drawings included portraits of Jacquette’s brother Nils and Carl Löwenhielm, both characters in Butterfly Games.
Click the images below to enlarge.
Engraving: Marot, Jean, ca 1619-1679 (Engraver)
Public Domain.
Douglas House Upper Floors from Square
Photograph: Kelly Scarborough
Douglas House, Nighttime Scene 1888. Fritz von Dardel
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
