Rug ‘Salerno Grey’ designed by Barbro Nilsson for MMF AB, Sweden, 1948

Known for her role in popularizing Scandinavian modernism within the decorative arts, Swedish textile designer Barbro Lundberg Nilsson’s mastery of color and form and innovative designs for rugs and tapestries rendered her a substantial contributor to her native country’s legacy of mid-century textile design.

Nilsson was born Barbro Lundberg in 1899 in Malmö. At age 14, she studied weaving at Johanna Brunsson’s Vävskola and, later, at Tekniska Skolan (now Konstfack) in Stockholm, where she displayed a prodigious talent. Her career as a textile designer began in the 1920s when she created large-scale tapestry versions of modern Swedish art. In 1928, she married sculptor Robert Nilsson, and they spent the next few years living in Rome.

After their return to Sweden in the early 1930s, Swedish painter and sculptor Sven Erixson commissioned Nilsson to create a large tapestry as part of a proposal to refurbish the Gothenburg Concert Hall. During this period, she was a designer for influential Swedish textile artist Märta Måås-Fjetterström, who ran an atelier called MMF AB in Båstad. Following Måås-Fjetterström’s death in 1942, Nilsson was appointed manager of MMF AB, which she helmed until 1972. 

Nilsson remained prolific throughout the mid-20th century. Not only did she manage MMF AB — working with the likes of designers Marianne Richter and Ann-Mari Forsberg — but she was also the director of Konstfack’s textiles department from 1947 to 1957. During this time, she became well-known throughout Sweden and Europe for her innovative use of color, provocative patterns and weaving techniques, such as flossa, haute-lisse, flatweave and knotted high-pile to create her impressive hand-woven Scandinavian rugs and carpets.

 Nilsson produced tapestries, rugs and decorative textiles for the Supreme Court of Sweden, the Swedish embassy in Moscow, Russia and Helsingborg’s City Library. She also created decorative textiles for more than 40 Swedish churches, including several church restoration projects helmed by her brother, the famed Swedish architect Erik Lundberg. For her outstanding contributions to culture, Sweden’s royal Litteris et Artibus awarded her a medal in 1948.

Even after she died in 1983, Nilsson’s reputation endures. Her work is held in the collections of the National Museum of Sweden and museums in Gothenburg and Malmö, Copenhagen, Denmark and Trondheim, Norway.

On 1stDibs, discover a range of vintage Barbro Nilsson rugs, carpets and wall decorations.