Brucebo is an artists' estate in Själsö, Väskinde on

Gotland Gotland (, ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a province, county, municipality, and diocese. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the ...

, Sweden, created by

William Blair Bruce William Blair Bruce (8October 185917November 1906) was a Canadian painter. He studied in France and became one of Canada's first impressionist painters. He lived most of his life in France and on the island of Gotland, Sweden, where he and his S ...

and his wife Carolina Benedicks-Bruce. The estate later became a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

and an art museum managed by the Brucebo Foundation. The Bruce and Benedicks legacy also includes the Brucebo Fine Art Scholarship for young Canadian artists.

The estate

Brucebo was originally a summer house bought by William Blair Bruce and his wife Carolina Benedicks-Bruce. The estate is situated north of

Visby Visby () is an urban area in Sweden and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County on the island of Gotland with 24,330 inhabitants . Visby is also the episcopal see for the Diocese of Visby. The Hanseatic city of Visby is arguably th ...

. In 1900–06, the couple added a large extension to the small main house on the estate. The house was built in the neo-romantic style of the early 1900s. The new part of the house included a studio with large windows facing the sea. The idea behind the design of the house was to eliminate the line between the outdoors and the indoors. The couple created many artistic works at Brucebo and many of them can still be seen there, since the house has been converted into an art museum. The house and the museum are maintained and owned by the Brucebo Foundation. The estate is . In addition to the main house there are several buildings, most of which were constructed during 1900–06, when the extension to the main house was built. There is a pavilion, a forest studio, a beach studio, the Caretaker's House, a stable with an additional shed and an ice cellar made of limestone. The buildings are designed in the same style as the main house, except for the Caretaker's House, which is inspired by one of the houses at Standgatan in Visby, the Burmeister 4.

History

In her will, Benedicks-Bruce, left Brucebo to a scholarship fund that would enable young Canadian and Swedish artists to come and stay at Brucebo. However, this program did not start until after a major renovation of the house a few years after her death. The estate served as a boardinghouse for artists for a while up until 1970, when it was designated a nature reserve. The Gotland Municipality owned Brucebo between 1971 and 1973. In 1973, Brucebo was sold to Swedish TV-producer and director

Torbjörn Axelman Lars Gunnar Torbjörn Kullänger-Axelman (born 28 April 1932) is a Swedish TV producer, director and writer. Career Axelman was born in Eskilstuna, Sweden, the son of the bookseller Valdemar Axelman and his wife Märtha (née Engström). He pass ...

(born 1932) who started to renovate the main house and the estate. When Axelman's company went bankrupt in 1995, the Brucebo Foundation bought back the estate and Axelman stayed on as a tenant in the old part of the main house. With the foundation as owner, renovations were done at the house and plans to convert it to a museum were set in motion.

Museum

In 2009, work began to convert the main house in Brucebo into a museum. The project was managed by the Brucebo Foundation. The house was cleaned, the original furniture was renovated and the art, comprising thousands of works, was brought to the

Gotland Museum The Gotland Museum ( sv, Gotlands museum) (previously known as ''Länsmuseet på Gotland'' or ''Gotlands Fornsal'') in Visby, Sweden, is the county museum of Gotland. It was founded by the Friends of Gotland's Antiquity society in 1875, at the in ...

to be catalogued and restored. Everything was later brought back to the house and the ground floor was arranged in exactly the same way it had been when Bruce and Benedicks-Bruce lived there. The museum opened in 2012, and is open for pre-booked groups of visitors.

Nature reserve

In 1970, the Brucebo estate was established as a nature reserve. The Brucebo nature reserve is mainly located in Visby, a minor part of it belongs to Väskinde socken. It is described as a "miniature Gotland" since all the different kinds of landscapes on the island are represented there. In 2005, it was designated as a

Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectively ...

area. The reserve is directly south of the museum and includes the Skansudd bird reserve and the cliff to its east, with a

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

on the crest. The north and west sides of the fort are protected by steep slopes while the south and west sides have an embankment long, wide and high. The crest of the cliff, where the

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

is bare, is a habitat for ''Cerastium pumilum'', ''Cerastium semidecandrum'', '' Potentilla neumanniana'', ''

Veronica spicata ''Veronica spicata'' (spiked speedwell; syn. ''Pseudolysimachion spicatum'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae. It is tall and bears 1 foot long spikes with blue, pink, purple and white flowers. It is the county flow ...

'', ''Scabiosa columbaria'' and ''Pilosella peleteriana''. Nearby, can be found stands of ''Artemisia rupestris'', ''

Sorbus rupicola ''Sorbus rupicola'', known as rock whitebeam, is a rare shrub or small tree best known from the British Isles but also reported from Norway, Sweden and Russia. Reaching heights of 10 m,''New Flora of the British Isles''; Clive Stace; Third editi ...

'', ''Cotoneaster niger'', elderberry, ''Rosa mollis'' and sweet briar. There are grape vines and mahaleb cherrys, probably from seeds carried by birds, growing on a

barrow Barrow may refer to: Places England * Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria ** Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, local authority encompassing the wider area ** Barrow and Furness (UK Parliament constituency) * Barrow, Cheshire * Barrow, Gloucestershire * Barro ...

near the hill fort. The area below the cliff is forested with

fir Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family (biology), family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North America, North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The ...

s and

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

trees entwined with

ivy ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and ...

. A number of rare and endangered species of fungi have also been registered in the reserve. In the drop of the cliff is a small cave called the Brucebo Cave, where relics from an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

settlement have been found.

Brucebo Foundation

In 1972, the estate of Carolina Benedicks-Bruce created the Brucebo Fine Art Scholarship Foundation. The scholarship is given to younger Canadian artists, to come and stay, work and study at Brucebo on Gotland.

Scholarship recipients

Summer Residency and Travel Scholarship. *1972, Karen Madson Pascal *1973, Daphne Odjig-Bevon *1974, Tin Yum Lau *1975, John Lander *1976, Lupe Rodrigues *1977, Carole Rubin *1978, Michelle Desjardins *1979, — *1980, Roger Savage *1981, Thomas Corriveau *1982, Reginald Yates *1983, — *1984, David Abelson *1985, — *1986, Dawna Gallagher *1987, Terry Emrich *1988, Peter Raymond *1989 Jane Reagh *1999, G. Scott MacLeod *2000, — *2001, Eva Richardson, Laurel Smith *2002, Andrew Rucklidge, Yechel Gagnon *2003, Keer Tanchak *2004, Allison Katz, Alex Bartosik *2005, Alexandre Masino, Andrea Vander Kooij *2006, Natasha Mazurka, Geneviève Chevalier *2007, Francois Saint-Pierre, Allison Freeman *2008, Mark Prier, Josée Pedneault *2009, Amy Schissel, Elisabeth Belliveau *2010, Kristen Bjornerud, Andrew Morrow *2011, Daniel Hutchinson, Jessica Auer *2012, Véronique La Perrière, Rilla Marshall *2013, Sara A. Tremblay, Michael Dudeck *2014, Daniel Paterson, Jim Holyoak *2015, Jeremy Herndl, Liz Toohey-Weise *2016, Corri-Lynn Tetz. John Player *2017, Laura Findlay, Caroline Boileau

Brucebo shooting

In 2008, the Brucebo Foundation's work with converting Brucebo into a museum started. The whole house was to be renovated and the previous owner, now tenant, Torbjörn Axelman was dismissed from his apartment in the main house in October that year. Axelman refused to accept this and held the chairman of the foundation, Joakim Hansson personally responsible for the decision. On 1December 2008, Hansson, his assistants and helpers arrived with a moving truck at Brucebo to collect the old furniture and the art and transport them to the Gotland Museum for restoration and cataloguing. Axelman resented this and at approximately 2:00pm he pulled out a gun and shot Hansson three times, twice in the back and once in one of his hands. Hansson and two other persons managed to flee from the house out into the garden and three other persons, who were in the house, hid out on a balcony on the top floor. When the local police came to Brucebo, they could not get Axelman to come out of the house. A team from the National Task Force were flown in from Stockholm. The police surrounded the house and at about 9:00pm, they managed to bring Hansson and the rest of the personnel outside the house and on the balcony, to safety. Hansson was brought to hospital where his condition was declared as not critical. Shortly after 10:00pm, Axelman came out of the house with a gun in his hand and started to shoot at the policemen, who returned fire and shot Axelman once in each thigh and once in the chest. Axelman was arrested and taken to hospital. He had lost a lot of blood and was treated for severe injuries. On 5February 2009, Axelman was found guilty by the Gotland district court, of three charges of attempted murder. According to the

Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine The Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine ( sv, Rättsmedicinalverket, abbreviated RMV) is a Swedish government agency organized under the Ministry of Justice, responsible for forensic psychiatry, forensic chemistry, forensic medicine and ...

, Axelman suffered from a severe mental disorder and in need of psychiatric treatment. The district court's sentence was established by the Svea Court of Appeal on 10 June 2010. He was sentenced to psychiatric care at a closed institution. In October 2011, Axelman was moved from closed to open care, with a restriction that he was forbidden to visit Gotland. In March 2012, he was released from care and the restriction was lifted.

References

External links

{{commons category, Brucebo
Maps, pictures and a presentation of Brucebo
(in Swedish) Nature reserves in Sweden Tourist attractions in Gotland County Geography of Gotland County 1900 establishments in Sweden Cultural heritage of Sweden Art museums and galleries in Sweden 2008 crimes in Sweden