House-Museum of the Estonian Artist Ants Laikmaa: Merripit House from The Hound of the Baskervilles

Marja, Kadarpiku, 90804 Lääne County, Estonia

Ants Laikmaa (1866–1942) was one of the most prominent figures in Estonian art. The artist's house-museum was built according to the artist's own designs, and the surroundings of the house are adorned with a beautiful natural park. He gained fame both as a portraitist and as a landscape painter. In the film *The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson*, in the episode *The Hound of the Baskervilles*, the Ants Laikmaa house-museum played the role of Stapleton's Merripit House.

Following in the footsteps of: "Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson," a film walk through Latvia, Estonia, Abkhazia, and St. Petersburg

Artist Ants Laikmaa was born on May 5, 1866, in the Vigala parish of Lääne County. Laikmaa studied painting in St. Petersburg and at the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts, and his favorite technique was pastel. He mainly painted landscapes and portraits of Estonian scholars, as well as peasants from Western Estonia.

In 1917, he bought half of the Tammiku farmstead in the village of Kadarpiku and began building his house there in the 1920s. In 1932, he moved here permanently and lived here for the rest of his life.

The artist built his last home in the village of Kadarpiku, Lääne County. The house was constructed according to the artist’s own drawings, and the surroundings of the house are adorned with a beautiful natural park.

The first floor of the house houses an exhibition dedicated to the artist’s biography. On the second floor are the studio, office, and bedroom with personal belongings and antique items of ethnographic value.

In the film "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson," in the episode "The Hound of the Baskervilles," the Ants Laikmaa house museum played the role of the Stapleton’s Merripit House.

The barn where Stapleton kept the dog is located on the opposite side of the house, not where Watson looked through the window. However, the interiors were not filmed here but in a studio; only the window shapes remained from the real house.

Sources:

https://www.visitestonia.com/ru/дом-музей-антса-лайкмаа

https://www.221b.ru/geo/6-merripit.htm

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