Bringing Home the Body of King Karl XII of Sweden Pocket Square

This lifelike painting from Gustaf Cederström portrays the royal hero's return to Sweden following a fatal shot at the Siege of Fredriksten in Norway in 1718. Cederström was so intent on capturing the image as realistically as possible that he enlisted professional models, colleagues, friends and relatives to pose for him to ensure each soldier had a definitive individual look. For the King himself, he even erected a stretcher, getting a professional model to lie on it to create the scene as accurately as possible.