A sculpture of a man carrying a limbless woman

Det entomologiska kvinnorovet stands as a landmark on a four-metre-high granite pillar outside the Karolinska Institutet. Created by Eric Grate between 1956 and 1958, this bronze sculpture presents three cubised figures. It depicts a man with insect-like antennae in his jaw carrying a limbless woman wearing a crown or hat, while a third person runs alongside them.

Grate first conceived this motif in 1920s Paris after observing a performer with limb differences in an amusement park. He spent decades refining the concept through various media, including terracotta reliefs and small-scale bronze figures. In 1955, Statens Konstråd commissioned Grate to create a proposal for a sculpture at the entrance of the medical college.

When the final design was presented in 1957, it sparked a debate among the faculty at Karolinska Institutet. The majority of the faculty voted against the proposal, arguing that the theme of physical and mental decay was unsuitable for a medical school. The discussion was so intense that a medical professor sought to have the artist add arms and legs to the limbless woman.

To address the faculty concerns, a donor gifted the institute a more naturalistic sculpture of a mother and child by Nils Möllerberg. Nevertheless, Grate's work was installed in 1958 and remains a fixture at the entrance today.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons