Axel Munthe occupation personal physician
Axel Martin Fredrik Munthe (31 October 1857 – 11 February 1949) was a Swedish-born physician and psychiatrist, best known as the author of The Story of San Michele, an autobiographical account of his life and work. He spoke several languages (Swedish, English, French, Italian fluently, and German at least passably), grew up in Sweden, attended medical school there, then studied medicine in Paris and opened his first practice in France. He was married to a wealthy Englishwoman and spent most of his adult life in Italy. 
His philanthropic nature often led him to treat the poor without charge, and he risked his life on several occasions to offer medical help in times of war, disaster or plague. As an advocate of animal rights, he purchased land to create a bird sanctuary near his home in Italy, argued for bans on painful traps, and himself kept pets as diverse as an owl and a baboon, as well as many types of dog. His writing is light-hearted, being primarily memoirs drawn from his real-life experiences, but it is often tinged with sadness or tragedy, and often uses dramatic licence. He primarily wrote about people and their idiosyncrasies, portraying the foibles of both the rich and the poor, but also about animals.Paris and Italy
After graduation, Munthe opened a medical practice in Paris, largely catering to the members of the Scandinavian art colony there. In 1884 he travelled to Naples to offer medical assistance in a cholera epidemic.
In 1887, he moved to Capri, bought the Villa San Michele and began restoration, doing much of the work himself, but also employing local residents, including three brothers and their father.
In 1890, running low on money for the project, he opened a practice in Rome which catered to foreign dignitaries as well as the local population. From this point onwards he divided his time between Rome and Capri.Queen Victoria of Sweden
In 1892, Munthe was appointed physician to the Swedish royal family. In particular, he served as personal physician of the Crown Princess, Victoria of Baden, continuing to do so when she became Queen consort, and until the time of her death in 1930, although this did not mean that he was in constant attendance.
Victoria suffered from severe bronchitis and possibly also tuberculosis. Munthe recommended that she spend her winters on Capri for her health. While initially hesitant, in the autumn of 1910 she travelled to Capri, and from then onwards, except during the First World War and for a few years towards the end of her life, she spent several months each year there.
While in residence the Queen often visited the Villa San Michele to join Munthe for morning walks around the island. Munthe and the Queen also arranged evening concerts at San Michele, at which the Queen played the piano. The Queen shared Munthe's love of animals, owning a pet dog herself, and helped support his efforts to purchase Mount Barbarossa to establish it as a bird sanctuary. Perhaps inevitably, given the small local population and their close friendship, it was rumoured that Munthe and the Queen were lovers, but this has never been substantiated.
Young Princess Maria, who by request of King Gustaf V of Sweden twice stayed with the Queen and Munthe at Capri, found his influence damaging and his powers hypnotic. Years later she asserted that he wanted her to be his patient at age 23 and made physical advances toward her, and that the horror she then felt toward the Swedish royal family, because of their unlimited support of Munthe, was the main reason she fled them and filed for divorce from Prince Wilhelm.Munthe has been described as less interested in the health of his patients than in his own convenience and fame, and his having Victoria travel to Capri, and stay there for months in that particular climate, has been considered more detrimental than beneficial to her health.Other indication of his passionate nature concerns an affair he is believed to have had with the English socialite Lady Ottoline Morrell, beginning when they first met in July or August 1898. Ottoline was then an unmarried 25-year-old member of the privileged London social scene, while being at the same time slightly contemptuous of it. Her intellectual and spiritual interests drew her to more mature men, such as H. H. Asquith, particularly if they had a reputation for iconoclasm. She and Axel Munthe were drawn to each other, and managed to spend much private time together on Capri.
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