Born to artistic parents, Tove’s first illustrations were published when she was just 14 years old. “I’m working” was a phrase that cropped up frequently in her diaries, even at this young age ? and referred to anything from drawing to actively seeking ideas. She studied at Stockholm’s University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, the Graphic School of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and at L’École d’Adrien Holy and L’École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and was primarily a fine artist. Despite the success of the Moomins books, the first of which was published in 1945 as an antidote to the second world war, what she really wanted was to be taken seriously for her painting.

She started renting this space shortly after the war and eventually bought it once the Moomins started generating sufficient income. “It looks terrible after the bombings, no windows, cracks everywhere, large pieces of the walls have collapsed, the stove and the radiators are destroyed,” she said in a letter to Eva Konikoff in 1944. “But it is still my great dream, 7.70 metres from corner to corner. And next to it is a small room where I can live.”
The “small room” that comprised her living accommodation was modest to say the least, with most of the space given over to creating, storing and displaying her artwork. A small fire provided heating for the whole space as well as somewhere to cook. She had a tiny living room a...