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The still-lifes known as 'quod-libet' still-lifes—illusionistically rendered wooden surfaces in which a ribbon for holding letters is depicted filled with documents, letters and other trifles—developed into an independent genre in the Netherlands in the 1650s and 1660s. One of the earliest painters to work with the genre, the Dutchman Samuel van Hoogstraten, used the motif to create a composition which would characterise himself as an artist and a writer (fig. 2). In Sweden the presentation of an intellectual portrait of this kind was to dominate the content of quod-libet paintings. Among the works dealt with in this article, one or two with a vanitas motif (figs. 16 & 19) and a few that seem to lack any intellectual meaning are exceptions. It is also noticeable that the majority of these exceptions stem from the middle of the 18th century and later, in other words when the tradition had already passed its heyday, and that many of them are also markedly provincial. The two earliest known artists who painted quod-libet still-lifes in Sweden were both from the Netherlands. Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts spent the winter of 1673-74 in Stockholm, when he completed the still-life, fig. 3, commissioned by the burgesses of Stockholm as a gift to Claes Rålamb, the governor of the city. Gijsbrechts had specialised in trompe l'oeil motifs and even in an international perspective can be seen as one the first artists who helped to create the quod-libet genre. In other respects his works in general seem to lack any features of portraiture. Rålamb's painting constitutes an exception in Gijsbrechts' work in that the recipient's name is stated on the documents depicted. In 1678 one of van Hoogstraten's pupils, Cornelis van der Meulen, established himself in Stockholm. His still-life, fig. 1, is an intellectual self-portrait, in which letters addressed to the artist himself have been combined with the artist's implements and products. It is probable that the painting is identical with the small work with letters that van der Meulen presented when, according to the guild's records, he became a member of the guild of artists in Stockholm in 1679. Johan Kiopper and Carl Hofwerberg belong to the generations that came next. Klopper, the older of the two, had spent some years studying abroad, when he returned to Sweden in 1694. "Portraits" dominate among the relatively few works known to be his. Hofwerberg was an officer, but is best known for a series of altar-pieces in churches in the northern provinces of Sweden. Up to now there has been no certainty about his artistic training and the similarities between the one quod-libet still-life known to have been painted by Kiopper, fig. 4, and two still-lifes signed by Hofwerberg are therefore significant. Klopper acted as the drawing-master at the University of Uppsala, and it is probable that Hofwerberg, who studied for a few years at the university, beginning in 1713, was one of his pupils. Hofwerberg's two quod-libet still-lifes, figs. 5 & 6, were painted in 1737 for two brothers, Count Ture Gabriel Bielke and Count Carl Gustaf Bielke, and reflect the spheres of interest of each of them. Hofwerberg also had commissions from the De Geer family for their manor house at Leufstabruk. On the basis of documentary records and similarities with the signed quod-libet works, the author of the article attributes a still-life dedicated to Charles De Geer the younger (fig. 8) to Hofwerberg. Among the best known interiors from the rococo period in Sweden are the wall panels in the billiard room at the manor house in Akerö (fig. 10). They were painted in 1753 by Johan Pasch, and commissioned by Count Carl Gustaf Tessin for the dining room of the castle of Läckö.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]