The last month of Danish winter calls for an injection of colour and light. Here is a guide to a string of French masterpieces in and around Copenhagen. Dive into paintings of historical scenes, nudes and landscapes or walk through gardens reminiscent of the Château de Versailles in France. Hopefully the playful, powerful shapes and colours will be enough to sustain you until spring.
French Art 1900-1930
The National Gallery of Art, Sølvgade 48-50, Cph K; Permanent exhibition
At The National Gallery of Art you will find one of the world’s finest collections of Matisse works along with rarely exhibited, experimental and provocative works by Picasso, Braque, Modigliani and Derain. At the exhibition you can see very different works by the same artists. This is because many of the artists tried out different expressions and techniques. What these works have in common is that they received overwhelming attention from contemporary media, often in the form of raging criticism, for their distinctive vision of what modern art should look like. At the exhibition you can see Matisse’s paper cut ‘Zulma’, which is only very rarely exhibited.
The impressionists’ Paris
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Dantes Plads 7, 1556 Cph V; ends April 30
The collection of French paintings at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek are masterpieces from one of the most radical and visionary periods of the history of painting – from 1850 to the early 20th century. Paintings and sculptures tell the story of new terms of art and life in a period when artists united in their desire to change the practical and aesthetic terms of painting. Courbet, Daumier, Delacroix, Degas, Manet, Sisley, Renoir, Monet, Gauguin and van Gogh are some of the artists represented in this beautiful collection.
A taste of the Sun King’s pomp and circumstance
Museum of National History, Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerød
North of Copenhagen in Hillerød, you will find the Danish equivalent of Louis XIV of France’s magnificent castle Château de Versailles. Frederiksborg Castle is the largest Renaissance castle in Scandinavia. It is extremely lavishly decorated and was brought into the world to highlight the power of the Danish Sun King, Christian IV and impress other European monarchs. The surrounding gardens, laid out in carefully symmetrical baroque lines and romantic landscape design, are by themselves worth a visit.
A true Francophile’s collection
Ordrupgaard, Vilvordevej 110, Charlottenlund; permanent exhibition
The creator of Ordrupgaard, Wilhelm Hansen, was a true Francophile, who acquired all the art he could get his hands on through his business partners in France. He created a gallery on his own private property so that he could present the very best of French painting to the Danes. At the museum you will find an impressive collection of French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, including works by Monet, Morisot and Pissaro, and there is ample opportunity to study everything from idyllic French farmhouses bathed in sunshine to rainy depictions of industrial progress.
Find out more at http://www.cphmuseums.com/.
