Michael Dahl (29 September 1659 – 20 October 1743) was a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 portrait painter, who lived and worked in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 for the larger part of his life.

He was born at Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

 and received his first professional education there from the Hungarian-born painter Martin Hannibal, and continued his training with court painter David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl

David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl

David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl was a Swedish nobleman and portrait painter.Ehrenstrahl was born in Hamburg. In 1652, at twenty-four years of age, at the request of Carl Gustaf Wrangel, he moved to Skokloster Castle, from his art studies in the Netherlands...

. He left Sweden in 1682, and traveled over Antwerp to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, where he was influenced by the portrait work of Godfrey Kneller

Godfrey Kneller

Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I...

. He then crossed over to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, and made his way at last to Rome, there taking up residence for a considerable time, painting the portraits of the exiled Swedish Queen Christina

Christina of Sweden

Christina , later adopted the name Christina Alexandra, was Queen regnant of Swedes, Goths and Vandals, Grand Princess of Finland, and Duchess of Ingria, Estonia, Livonia and Karelia, from 1633 to 1654. She was the only surviving legitimate child of King Gustav II Adolph and his wife Maria Eleonora...

 and other celebrities. In 1688 he returned to England, and became for some years a dangerous rival to Kneller. He was one of the founders of the Saint Luke's Academy and was a member of the Rose and Crown Club

Rose and Crown Club

The Rose and Crown Club was a club for artists, collectors and connoisseurs of art in early 18th-century London, England.-History:The Rose and Crown Club "for Eminent Artificers of this Nation" was formed by 1704, when the engraver George Vertue was admitted; while it lasted, the club was among...

. He died in London.

His portraits still exist in many houses, but his name is not always preserved with them. Nagler (Künstler-Lexicon) says those at Hampton Court and at Petworth

Petworth House

Petworth House in Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century mansion, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s by Anthony Salvin...

contest the palm with those of the better known and vastly more employed painter.