Ester Claesson

Ester Laura Matilda Claesson (7 June 1884 – 12 November 1931) was a Swedish landscaping pioneer and is considered the first female landscape architect in Sweden.

Biography

Claesson finished her secondary school in Stockholm in 1900, a time when there were no academically trained female landscape architects in Sweden. There were women gardening practitioners, but mainly those who already owned a garden of their own. Those who wanted a professional education had to go abroad, usually Denmark, England or Germany. As Claesson was interested in gardening and architecture, she worked as a gardener on a farm in Tomarp, Skåne. She later continued her education in Denmark, graduating in 1903 from Havebrugs Höjeskole in Charlottenlund.

In 1918, Claesson worked as a landscape architect at Villa Brevik in Lidingö, just north of Stockholm. Through her work there she made contact with Erik Axel Karlfeldt, who lived nearby and in 1921 Claesson designed the garden for Karlfeldtsgården (the Karlfeldt summer residence), north of Leksand, which still exists.

Work In 1914, Claesson and Harald Wadsjö participated in the gardening competition at Skogskyrkogården in Stockholm. Their joint exhibition Cumulus received the third prize. That a woman had received the third prize became noted in Germany.

Claesson's other noted works include her garden at Ingelsta gård in 1917, at Adelsnäs in 1916–20 and the Röda Bergen garden in the Humleboet in 1925. Claesson and Karlfeldt created a garden together at Karlfeldtsgården Sång with terraces looking on Lake Opplimen. This garden is Claesson's only landscape work that remains in its original state.