In the Light of the North

The Hamburger Kunsthalle will play host from mid-May to September 2019 to works from the Ordrupgaard Museum, one of the most spectacular collections of Danish painting of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The featured works will offer visitors a representative overview of the major trends in Danish painting across an entire century while highlighting exceptional achievements. The exhibition follows the trajectory from the pioneers of the so-called »Golden Age« of Danish art (Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Christen Købke, Wilhelm Marstrand), to representatives of the National Romantic style, who primarily explored the beauties of their own country (Johan Thomas Lundbye, Peter Christian Skovgaard, Vilhelm Kyhn), to the Fynboerne, or Funen Painters, who practiced open-air painting on the Danish island of that name (Peter Hansen, Johannes Larsen, Fritz Syberg). Finally, paintings by Theodor Philipsen, a close friend of Paul Gauguin, will illuminate the signature aspects of Danish Impressionism. 

A special highlight of the show is large groups of works by Lauritz Andersen Ring and Vilhelm Hammershøi, the key figures in Danish Symbolism. Nine of Hammershøi’s fascinating interior scenes will be presented in the final gallery.

The exhibition »In the Light of the North« takes place at an opportune moment in view of the German-Danish Cultural Friendship Year that will be celebrated in 2020. The display of works from the Ordrupgaard Museum will form the backdrop for a multifaceted supporting programme that will allow visitors to experience Danish art, literature and music in events covering multiple epochs.

The unique collection housed in the Ordrupgaard Museum, located a few kilometres north of Copenhagen, was assembled from the 1890s onwards by insurance company director Wilhelm Hansen and his wife, Henny, and opened to the public in 1953 as a state-run museum. The present renovation and expansion of the museum presents a one-off opportunity to show major works from this collection in Hamburg.

The exhibition is under the auspices of S.E. Friis Arne Petersen, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Denmark to Germany

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