Bruno Liljefors

From the summer of 1894, Bruno Liljefors expanded his artistic "hunting grounds" from the Uppland plain to the Stockholm archipelago, where among skerries, rocky islets, waves, and surf, he found new subjects in the rich birdlife of the coastal waters.

In 1908, Liljefors purchased Bullerön, the outermost island in the Stockholm archipelago. Bullerön is the main island in the Bullerö archipelago, which is now a nature reserve comprising around 900 islands, islets, and skerries. Here on the island, at Rävängen, the artist built a hunting lodge where he and his family spent their summers. During the early 1900s, Liljefors and his friends in the "Bullerö group" made the archipelago more widely known. Among the circle of friends were artists Anders Zorn, Albert Engström, Axel Sjöberg, and the "flying baron" Carl Cederström. It is said that on the occasions when Bruno Liljefors visited his lodge with his friends, they would load a boat with provisions—plenty of food and drink, as well as kitchen staff—and head out to Bullerön. They would celebrate and enjoy themselves for several days until the food and drink ran out. Then they would simply conclude the festivities and head home. A small bay east of Rävängen is now referred to as "Zorn's Bay" because Zorn would moor his sailing boat Mejt there.

In 1923, Liljefors sold Bullerön to the businessman and newspaper magnate Torsten Kreuger, brother of financier Ivar Kreuger. Kreuger had the hunting lodge expanded and invited several famous film stars, including Mary Pickford, Errol Flynn, and Sir Charlie Chaplin, to enjoy the Swedish archipelago. The state purchased the Bullerö archipelago in 1967.

From his preserved hunting lodge on Bullerön, which was used by the artist from 1908 to 1923, Liljefors could study the birds and animals of the archipelago in their natural environment.