Axel’s studio also has a vaulted ceiling, presumably for the light. Axel worked here for more than 40 years. He retired from Turku Art Museum in 1953 at the age of 76, but he never retired from his career as an artist. He remained an active artist right up to his death.

Axel and Hedvig never, in fact, wanted their home to be turned into a museum. It was important to them that it remained a living home. They therefore wanted a flat for a researcher to be incorporated into the house after their death. The flat was primarily to be offered to researchers in the humanities, i.e. to historians, artists or writers. The association Hedvigs Minne followed their wishes and converted Axel’s studio into a home for a researcher in the 1970s. The two storage spaces at the far end of the studio were then converted into a kitchenette and a small bathroom. The studio was used by researchers into the 1990s. Since then, it has been returned to a state that is more similar to its appearance back in Axel’s day. No one has lived at Casa Haartman since the 1990s.