Swedish Pile Rug by Märta Måås-fjetterström and Barbro Nilsson

Known for her role in popularizing Scandinavian modernism within the decorative arts, Swedish textile designer Barbro Lundberg Nilsson’s mastery of color and form and innovative designs for rugs and tapestries rendered her a substantial contributor to her native country’s legacy of mid-century textile design.

Nilsson was born Barbro Lundberg in 1899 in Malmö. At age 14, she studied weaving at Johanna Brunsson’s Vävskola and, later, at Tekniska Skolan (now Konstfack) in Stockholm, where she displayed a prodigious talent. Her career as a textile designer began in the 1920s when she created large-scale tapestry versions of modern Swedish art. In 1928, she married sculptor Robert Nilsson, and they spent the next few years living in Rome.

After their return to Sweden in the early 1930s, Swedish painter and sculptor Sven Erixson commissioned Nilsson to create a large tapestry as part of a proposal to refurbish the Gothenburg Concert Hall. During this period, she was a designer for influential Swedish textile artist Märta Måås-Fjetterström, who ran an atelier called MMF AB in Båstad. Following Måås-Fjetterström’s death in 1942, Nilsson was appointed manager of MMF AB, which she helmed until 1972. 

Nilsson remained prolific throughout the mid-20th century. Not only did she manage MMF AB — working with the likes of designers Marianne Richter and Ann-Mari Forsberg — but she was also the director of Konstfack’s textiles department from 1947 to 1957. During this time, she became well-known throughout Sweden and Europe for her innovative use of color, provocative patterns and weaving techniques, such as flossa, haute-lisse, flatweave and knotted high-pile to create her impressive hand-woven Scandinavian rugs and carpets.

 Nilsson produced tapestries, rugs and decorative textiles for the Supreme Court of Sweden, the Swedish embassy in Moscow, Russia and Helsingborg’s City Library. She also created decorative textiles for more than 40 Swedish churches, including several church restoration projects helmed by her brother, the famed Swedish architect Erik Lundberg. For her outstanding contributions to culture, Sweden’s royal Litteris et Artibus awarded her a medal in 1948.

Even after she died in 1983, Nilsson’s reputation endures. Her work is held in the collections of the National Museum of Sweden and museums in Gothenburg and Malmö, Copenhagen, Denmark and Trondheim, Norway.

On 1stDibs, discover a range of vintage Barbro Nilsson rugs, carpets and wall decorations.

Märta Måås-Fjetterström was the leading figure in Swedish textile design in the early 20th century. Through her rug-weaving studio, MMF AB, Måås-Fjetterström introduced a modern and cosmopolitan spirit to the tradition-bound craft, creating some of the era’s most sublime rugs and carpets — works that are elegant yet have a handmade warmth and honesty.

Måås-Fjetterström was the daughter of a small-town minister, and her creative bent led her to study drawing at the School of Industrial Arts in Stockholm between 1890 and 1895. She became an art teacher after graduating and began drafting textile designs in the late 1890s. At the time, Sweden was experiencing many of the same cultural concerns that fueled the English Arts and Crafts movement: fears that industrialization was causing many traditional handicrafts to wither into extinction. The state supported numerous artisan workshops, and Måås-Fjetterström was hired as director of a weaving studio in the southern city of Mälmo in 1905. She was dismissed six years later for insisting that artisans be allowed to create original patterns rather than merely copy old ones.

She traveled widely in search of design inspirations, and in 1919 — thanks in large part to the patronage of Ludvig Nobel, grand-nephew of Alfred Nobel, who commissioned her to make all the rugs for a new country manor hotel — Måås-Fjetterström opened her own workshop. There she trained many of Sweden’s best modern weavers, including Barbo Nilsson and Marianne Richter (the latter, a widely celebrated mid-century modernist designer, became a leader at Måås-Fjetterström's atelier after its founder's death in 1941).

A major exhibition in Stockholm in 1934 brought public acclaim, a reputation secured worldwide by exhibitions at the British Museum in 1936 and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1939. Måås-Fjetterström’s company, MMF AB, is still in operation, and most of her roughly 700 designs are available for fabrication.

A broad range of influences can be seen in Måås-Fjetterström’s designs, among them Art Nouveau and classic Near Eastern and Asian styles. Her rug patterns fall roughly into two groups: The first includes stylized floral and other naturalistic motifs as well as modernized folkloric themes. The second comprises those employing geometric “tiles” in a formal composition based on that of Persian rugs, with an intricate border surrounding a central medallion.

Måås-Fjetterström generally used a subtle color palette: Soft pastels predominate, punctuated by the odd vibrant note. Her rugs are remarkable for their flexibility of use in decor schemes. They are a perfect complement to simple modern furniture in both blond and darker finishes; at the same time, the rugs can act as a perfect calming foil to more ornate historical styles. Måås-Fjetterström's creations, particularly signed vintage pieces, are highly collectible. Her designs are found in the world's leading museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

Find a collection of vintage MMF AB wall decorations, rugs and carpets on 1stDibs.