PLACES & SPACES | ROOMS & GARDENS | WORLD OF CABANA
In Stockholm’s Bellevue Park, Carl Eldh’s Ateljémuseum remains frozen in time, an intensely atmospheric studio where plasters, portraits, and personal effects linger as though their maker has only just stepped away. Emma Becque and Isabel Bronts explore the preserved world of one of Sweden’s most celebrated sculptors.
BY EMMA BECQUE | ROOMS & GARDENS | 7 FEBRUARY 2025
The studio's architecture is reminiscent of Swedish Classicism with French influences from Auguste Rodin, whom Eldh met while studying in Paris © Isabel Bronts
A wooden house, darkened by tar, sits among the trees of Bellevue Park. Its pitched roof and latticed windows recall a Scandinavian folktale, but when you step inside, the world shifts. Here, beneath beams that still bear the scent of pine and etchings of history, Carl Eldh spent most of his career carving figures from plaster, clay and stone. His work still crowds the room: busts stacked on makeshift plinths, hands caught mid-gesture, pending sketches awaiting a cast.
Built in 1919 by architect Ragnar Östberg, Eldh's studio was never intended to be a showpiece. It was a workshop; practical and unfussy, its wide doors allowing sculptures to pass in and out with relative ease. Light drenches the space through oversized windows, and their northern exposure was chosen deliberately by Eldh — sculptors never want direct sunlight. It is a milky, diffused glow that reveals form without casting shadows.
The studio showcases the sculptor's artisanal craftsmanship and method of working. Rough-hewn shelves hold chisels, unfinished sketches, and the patinated remnants of a creative life. "It's almost as if he just walked out and never came back," says Museum Director, Sara Bourke.
"We've preserved it as he left it—his tools, notes, even the podiums where he placed his figures in progress." Beyond the main space, a rotunda opens, its domed ceiling lending the atmosphere of an artist's chapel where Eldh would contemplate for hours. Here, the walls are cluttered with photographs of family and friends as well as memorabilia.
But the house is more than a shrine to a solitary sculptor. After Eldh died in 1954, Brita Eldh, Carl's only daughter, returned from Los Angeles to preserve his legacy. "She was the one who transformed it into a museum and opened it to the public" Bourke explains. "Without her, this place wouldn't exist as it does today." Brita took on the role of conducting the space to reach theatrical heights. Literary salons, concerts, and poetry readings became the norm, animating the stone and silent space into a world of magnificent artistic displays.
The garden, too, remains part of the narrative. "Eldh worked here as much as inside," Bourke says. "He moved his sculptures in and out to see how they caught the changing light." Today, his bronzes are planted between wild greenery and rare florals, exposed to the elements just as he intended.
For all its historical representation, the sculpture museum refuses to stagnate. Each summer, a contemporary female sculptor is invited to exhibit her work in dialogue with Eldh's. "It's been a way to balance the male dominance in the art world," says Bourke. "Seeing these vibrant, often wildly colourful pieces juxtaposed against Eldh's stark white plasters creates a real tension, a conversation across time."
A chorus of frozen gestures fills the studio, where over 500 plaster sketches stand as he left them, with contemporary works by Malin Gabriella Nordin © Isabel Bronts
"People return each year asking, 'Who's next?'" Bourke gleams. "There's always a sense of anticipation around the new artist, and the response has been incredible." The contrast of materials is the interplay of past and present, thanks to the ingenuity of the female fellowship leading the museum's future.
Bourke has taken on the custodian role, continuing Brita's ethos by inviting like-minded poets, musicians and artists to relish in the pocket-sized space through Swedish summer soirees and modern-day salons with "everyone welcome".
The Carl Eldh Studio Museum | Open April-October
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