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Skissernas museum

svensk flagga in Swedish

Skissernas museum

The image shows the museum before its latest renovation. The briefcase belonging to a famous Swedish diplomatꜜ has been moved further down the slope.

Skissernas Museum

The collection began in the mid-1930s, stored in a few boxes at the very top of the university building. The collector was Ragnar Josephson, professor of art history in Lund.

Josephson wanted to gather photographs and sketches, documenting the creative process. By 1941, the collection had grown from boxes to a first building—a converted gymnasium—opened by Prince Eugen.

Layer Upon Layer

The museum has been built and rebuilt over the years. The latest design, by Johan Celsing, opened in March 2005—light-filled and beautiful. The previous renovation improved storage, workspaces, and use of space. For drawings, see the SFV link. The newest upgrade added a restaurant. The museum neighbors Bishop’s House (IDstory), which has a small but fine art collection.

Sculpture park↗

Display and Pedagogy

The Museum of Sketches has about 25,000 objects. The works hang nearly as close together as the color patches in a painting by Piet Mondrian.

The museum is unique worldwide for its focus on sketches and models for monumental public art. For most, the Museum of Sketches is a hidden gem. Many wonder what became of the featured works—there is always more to discover here.

The Museum of Sketches—Tomorrow

When this story was written, the pt-30 stage of expansion was being planned—a renovation with an estimated cost of over SEK 80 million. The pt-30 step was not self-evident. Several commentators questioned how the museum could capture the creation of today’s public artworks. Build more space, or seek other solutions? Today, we know the answer.

My feeling then was that the museum should first invest heavily in its digital presence. That has indeed developed significantly under subsequent directors.

New Architectural Competition

Interactivity and synergy between the museum’s collection and its web profile open up many new possibilities. A concept competition is not the same as an architecture competition.

Many years have passed since these words were written, and now we know the Museum of Sketches has been expanded. Beautifully, with exciting content—well worth a detour.

Museum of Sketches
An unretouched image of the Museum of Sketches in Lund
Raoul Wallenberg’s briefcase

The briefcase is part of a sculpture—Hope—created by Gustav and Ulla Kraitz. Gustav was born in Hungary in 1926, sent at age 18 to five years’ forced labor in Russian coal mines. There is a strange poetry in he and his wife having created the sculpture Hope.↗

Gustav Kreitz and David Finn wrote a book about the sculpture—Hope: A Monument to Raoul Wallenberg. ISBN:1585670995.

Ulla Kreitz’s briefcase is found on Lidingö, where Raoul Wallenberg was born. His half-sister Nina Lagergren passed in 2019. The briefcase is also part of a sculpture in New York.

Skissernas museum

References

Published: 2005.03 Updated: 2025.09.11



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