The room contains several portraits of Axel’s relatives, including his great grandmother Adelaide Gustava Aspasie (Vava) Armfelt-von Essen, painted later in life. On either side of her are her parents, Wilhelmine, Duchess of Sagan (1781–1839), and Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt.

The drawing room also contains several works by Axel. A self-portrait hangs on the stove. Axel was a keen pipe smoker, as is seen in the many portraits in the house showing him with his pipe. To the left of the entrance from the hall hangs a portrait of Axel at the age of 17. It was painted by Hugo Simberg, who became a close friend of Axel’s when they studied together at the Finnish Art Society’s drawing school at the Atheneum in the early 1890s.

Another friend of Axel’s, Wäinö Aaltonen, sculpted a bronze of Axel in 1919. The bronze head is located by the door to the dining room.

On the rococo style bureau, there is a portrait of Hedvig in bronze made by the German sculptor Paul Schulz in 1900 when Hedvig and Axel were living in Rome. They married in the summer of 1898, travelled to Italy that autumn and lived there for about a year and a half, staying in Florence and Rome.

Axel and Hedvig were married for almost 70 years. Over the years, Axel painted many portraits of Hedvig, several of which are at Casa Haartman. A portrait from 1957 is hanging to the right of the stove.