Staging the east, shaping the self: Gustav III (1771–1792) and his self-representation through the Ottoman imagery

Abstract

This article examines the 18th-century European enthusiasm for turquerie as a layered cultural and political strategy of self-representation. Focusing on King Gustav III (1771–1792) of Sweden’s Turkish divan rooms and the Turkish Kiosk at Haga Park, it argues that these spaces surpassed the contemporary fascination with the Orient, serving as instruments for constructing and projecting power, legitimacy, and royal identity. Gustav III’s strategic deployment of Ottoman imagery articulated both the political constraints of his reign and his personal conception of authority and prestige. The Turkish Kiosk at Haga, in particular, is interpreted as an orchestrated architectural assertion of Sweden’s strategic alliance with the Ottoman Empire rather than a decorative folly. Within this framework, the article demonstrates how Gustav III translated diplomatic rapprochement into the physical space, reinforcing Sweden’s rivalry with Russia. His Ottoman-inspired projects thus operated simultaneously as acts of internal self-representation and declarations of foreign policy.