 An attack of scarlet fever at the age of fourteen caused him health issues from which he suffered for the rest of his life, including bad eyesight and hearing and chronic kidney problems.Jansson enrolled in the Tekniska skolan (now Konstfack) and studied with Edvard Perséus, a painter who ran a private art school in Stockholm.He was accepted into the Antique school of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in 1881, but did not have the means to follow most of his contemporaries to Paris for further studies.