Gustaf Fjaestad studied at the Royal Institute of Art from 1891-92 and worked thereafter with artists Bruno Liljefors and Carl Larsson. Before becoming a well-known artist, Fjaestad made a living creating his Stabbe chairs, chopped directly out of pine trees and carved with ornaments of foliage, pine needles and cones.
The first Stabbe chair was presented at the Swedish Artist’ Society’s exhibition in Stockholm in year 1900. The most well-known of the Stabbe pieces is the vast suite of sofas made (together with woodcarver Ola Eriksson) for the gallery of the businessman Ernest Thiel at Djurgården in Stockholm 1907-08.
Fjaestad´s furniture objects are seen as the epitome of Swedish jugend style. As an artist Fjaestad mostly painted winter motifs from the Swedish county Värmland and made his own home by the lake Racken. Fjaestad attracted other artist to the area which became the source of an artist collective called the Racksta Group. Fjaestad was an athlete and in 1891 he skated an English mile on the world record time 2,52,2. The following year he won the first Swedish bicycle competition open to everyone. In 1948 Gustaf Fjaestad passed away at the age of 80.
