Pierre Deland - Biography

Biography

Pierre Deland was born the child of Jean Pierre Deland, violinist of the royal chapel; his grandfather, Louis Antoine Deland, was from Luxembourg and was originally hairdresser of the queen. His uncle, Louis Deland, was the master of the Royal Swedish Ballet. Pierre Deland worked as a clerk and an officer before he joined the travelling theatre of Kristoffer Svanberg with his brothers Lars Mauritz and Fredrik in 1822. He married the stepdaughter of the director, Charlotta de Broen, and in 1833, he took over the Svanberg troupe, now called the Deland troupe, and the year after, they performed in Gothenburg, where the star Charlotta Eriksson performed with them as a guest artist.

His troupe inaugurated the theatre in Uppsala in 1840, the Åmål theatre in 1848, and others. They regularly performed at the Åbo Svenska Teater after its foundation in 1839. They inaugurated the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki in the 1860–1861 season, and it was from his troupe that the first regular troupe of this Finnish national stage was hired. His wife Charlotta Deland and his brother Fredrik Deland where also popular actors, and his daughter Betty Deland and son-in-law Knut Almlöf were to be stars at the Royal Dramatic Theatre.

As an actor he was considered well educated and versatile; he taught his students a more natural way of speaking, upheld a high artistic standard, and often played French comedies. However, as a person he was not very well liked by his colleagues, as he was a very strict director. He was described as cold and arrogant towards his actors, and he demanded "virtue and order" not only in their work but also in their private lives.

In 1835 he bought Djurgårdsteatern jointly with Ulrik Torsslow and Sara Torsslow; the theatre and its licence belonged to his wife's family. She was the daughter of director Isaac de Broen (d.1815) and the niece of Aurora de Broen, whose husband they bought it from. The companionship was dissolved in 1837, but in 1849, he was again made director, and the troupe then performed there in the summers and in Finland during the winters. In the 1850s, his finances deteriorated, as he chose to play to solemny plays for the taste of the audience, and in 1861, he accepted an offer to join the Royal Dramatic Theatre.