PRESENTATION: Anna Casparsson-The Isle of Bliss

For Anna Casparsson, embroidery was a personal and private creation. She rarely signed her works, and she gave away embroideries that she did not have room for at home to friends. It was not until she was in her eighties, in 1945, that her art was presented in her first major exhibition, which took place at the Grand Hôtel in Saltsjöbaden.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Moderna Museet Archive

In  the exhibition “Anna Casparsson – The Isle of Bliss”, are presented 21 artworks, including embroidered folding screens and grand piano covers. On appliqués of silk, velvet and lace, Casparsson embroidered detailed motifs using a wide variety of stitches.

Anna Casparsson (1861–1961) was a pianist, translator, and textile artist who forged a distinct creative path, building an artistic world that defied traditional rules, genres, and expectations. Operating primarily out of her home, Villa Snäckan in Saltsjöbaden outside Stockholm, she developed embroidery into an independent artistic language that blurred the boundary between fine art and traditional craft.

For several decades during the first half of the twentieth century, Villa Snäckan served as a vital meeting place for cultural figures, who gathered around the grand piano in her salon. Playing the piano was Casparsson’s early passion, but over time embroidery became her chief form of expression. In a era when public cultural spheres were predominantly accessible to men, her home salon provided an essential space for artistic exchange.

Casparsson began embroidering in the 1920s, a period of growing interest in needlework, yet her technique broke completely with the conventional ideals of her time. The physical act of making was central to her process—the hand at work, the precision of each stitch, and the tactile quality of the materials were integral to the finished pieces. She worked on appliqués of repurposed silk, velvet, and antique lace, embedding her textiles with an opulent mix of non-traditional objects: pearls, shells, sequins, buttons, mirror shards, and gold and silver thread.

Her compositions were created both in and for the home, taking the form of embroidered draperies, folding screens, grand piano covers, pillows, tablecloths, and bags. These functional objects expanded into elaborate narrative landscapes inhabited by weeping birches, palms, and architectural structures. Her imagery drew inspiration from literature, classical music, memories of her travels, folk tales, and biblical stories.

Casparsson frequently stitched words and phrases directly into the fabric, which later provided the titles for her works. Examples include “David and Goliath”, “The Ugly Duckling”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, and “The Isle of Bliss” that was drawn from P. D. A. Atterbom’s verse narrative of the same name.

Although Casparsson began her textile work in the 1920s, she kept her creations private for decades. It was not until 1945, at the age of eighty-four, that she presented her art publicly in a major exhibition at the Grand Hôtel in Saltsjöbaden. Subsequent exhibitions followed at Den Frie Udstilling in Copenhagen and the Skånska konstmuseum in Lund in 1948. Shortly before her hundredth birthday in 1960, Moderna Museet in Stockholm honored her career with a solo exhibition, celebrating an artist who transformed domestic stitchery into an extraordinary visual world.

Photo: Anna Casparsson, Stories. Little Claus and Big Claus, The story of Little Rosa, The Little Mermaid, 1947. © Anna Casparsson 2025. Photo: Albin Dahlström/Moderna Museet

Info: Curators: Asrin Haidariand  Elisabeth Millqvist, Moderna Museet, Ola Billgrens plats 2-4, Malmö, Sweeden, Duration: 24/10/2026-21/2/2027, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 11:00-17:00, Thu 11:00-19:00, www.modernamuseet.se/