MAY AT ORDRUPGAARD 🌸
May is coming and so are longer days, blooming flowers, and a calendar packed with art. Spring has officially arrived at Ordrupgaard, and we're ready for your visit.
LAST CHANCE: Café Society ☕
Your final chance to catch van Gogh, Pissarro, and the crowd that changed art history. The exhibition closes at the end of May. You don't want to miss this one.
NEW IN THE DANISH COLLECTION 🪟
Bertha Wegmann's "My Favourite Window (Interior from Jenbach, Tyrol)", a quiet, radiant piece from one of Denmark's leading 19th-century female artists, filled with mysteries waiting to be uncovered.
ILLUMINATIONS: A Journey in Music and Light 🎶✨
Experience the museum like never before. This multi-sensory event blends tunes from legendary French composers, light, and art into something truly magical.
GUIDED TOURS EVERY WEEK 🗣️
Weekly guided tours in Danish—choose Café Society or our permanent collection. Let our guides reveal the stories behind the art.
GREEN HOUSE EXHIBITION: You Are Yourself a Sequoia by Camilla Berner 🌲
Meet the majestic sequoia through Camilla Berner's eyes. Intimate, surprising, and absolutely worth the visit.
VISIT FINN JUHL'S HOUSE 🛋️
Step inside the home where Denmark's legendary architect lived, worked, and created his most iconic pieces.
TALK: Jesper Christiansen on Van Gogh (in Danish) 🎨
Artist Jesper Christiansen explores Van Gogh's love of literature. Intimate and insightful.
COMING SOON: Mod Motivet – Ann Linn Palm Hansen 🖼️
The biggest exhibition yet from artist and writer Ann Linn Palm Hansen. Mark your calendars.
See you at Ordrupgaard this May.
Bring your curiosity—we'll bring the art. 🌿
CAFE SOCIETY
As of tomorrow 6 February, Ordrupgaard presents ‘Café Society. Art and Sociability in Belle Époque Paris’, an exhibition that invites visitors into the vibrant world of Parisian cafés around 1900.
Artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Édouard Vuillard capture the cafés as lively meeting places for artists, musicians, and poets - spaces where ideas were exchanged, networks formed, and conversations flowed over coffee, beer, wine, and absinthe. Scandinavian artists including Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Edvard Munch, and Anders Zorn were also drawn to these establishments in search of new connections and artistic inspiration.
Depicting modern urban life, these artists embraced a subject matter that marked a decisive shift away from the historical and mythological themes that had dominated art for centuries.
The exhibition is organised by Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen, in close collaboration with Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, and Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha. Following its presentation at Ordrupgaard, the exhibition will travel to the two American museums.
James Jacques Joseph Tissot
‘The Artists’ Wives’
1885
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., and The Grandy Fund, Landmark Communications Fund, and “An Affair to Remember.
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#exhibition #cafe #paris #museum #ordrupgaard #art #visitdenmark #visitcopenhagen #artoninstagram #copenhagenvisitorservice #wonderfulcopenhagen
ACCESS TO FINN JUHL'S HOUSE
Admission to Finn Juhl’s House requires a separate ticket, which can be purchased in addition to the standard Ordrupgaard admission ticket. The ticket price for Finn Juhl’s House is DKK 75.
WEEKDAYS
Access to the house is by guided visit only (in English). Please see available time slots on the website.
Duration: approximately 45 minutes.
Includes: a 10-minute introduction to the house followed by 30 minutes of independent exploration.
WEEKENDS
Visits are self-guided. Finn Juhl’s House is open from 11am to 5pm.
Guided tours are not offered at weekends.
Please note: Access to Finn Juhl’s House is only possible via the museum grounds: Vilvordevej 110, 2920 Charlottenlund.
Photo: #thecurrent
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#finnjuhl #finnjuhlhouse #ordrupgaard #danishmodern#architecture #artoninstagram #museum #art #danishartist #visitdenmark #visitcopenhagen#artoninstagram #copenhagenvisitorservice #wonderfulcopenhagen
FINN JUHL'S WORKSPACE
An inspiring workspace unlocks creativity. Finn Juhl knew this instinctively and surrounded himself with colours, textures, and his own creations to get the thoughts going.
His workspace in the southern wing of his house exemplifies this philosophy. Anchored by the FJ 46 chair from 1946, the space showcases the architect's trademark attention to detail.
Just look at the small arrangement on the desk. Each piece is carefully positioned to create a visual harmony through varying heights, forms, and textures.
Photos: Henrik Sørensen
STEP INSIDE PISSARRO'S PARIS IN 1898
Ever wondered what it was like to be in the middle of Paris 100 years ago? This 3D animation by Andrey Zakirzyanov may give you that experience. Combining new technology with French painter Camille Pissarro's 1898 work of la Ville de Lumière you can sense the hectic environment around Rue-Saint-Honoré, complete with horse-drawn carriages, and golden autumn light.
You can experience the original painting in our current special exhibition "Café Society"—a small window into the city that shaped art, music and poetry throughout the world.
🖼️ Credit: Animation by Andrey Zakirzyanov, @andrey.zakirzyanov
🖌️ Camille Pissarro, Morning Sun in the Rue Saint-Honoré. Place du Théâtre Français, 1898.
ÅBNINGSTIDER KRISTI HIMMELFART 🔆
Har du brug for en kulturel udflugt i Kr. Himmelfartsdagene? Både museet og kunstparken har åbent som normalt, hvor du kan gå på opdagelse i kunst i verdensklasse af de franske impressionister, danske mestermalere og boltre dig i kunstparkens mange installationer, som du både må røre, hoppe og lege i.
Gå heller ikke glip af vores anmelderroste særudstilling Café Society, der gennem værker af kunstnere som van Gogh, Pissaro og Picasso udforsker de fortryllende caféer i Paris i årtierne omkring 1900. ☕
Ses vi?
AGOSTINA SEGATORI: Van Gogh's muse and the bohemian queen of Montmatre ☕
Does that lady in van Gogh's painting seem oddly familiar? Meet Agostina Segatori (1841-1910) - legendary muse, model, and café owner.
There's a good reason why so many paintings featuring Segatori can be found in our current special exhibition Café Society. As a model, she posed for artists such as Édouard Joseph Dantan, Camille Corot, Eugène Delacroix, Édouard Manet, and van Gogh himself, with whom she had a brief romantic relationship.
But she didn't only make an impact through modelling. She also ran the famous Café le Tambourin, where artists became regulars in the space that also doubled as an exhibition room. The trademark of the café? You guessed it: tambourines as trays.
Van Gogh lived nearby in Montmartre and placed his Japanese woodblock prints on the walls. But his heart? That he placed closely in the hands of Agostina. If you look closely, you can spot the prints in the background of his 1887 portrait of her. At that time, it was quite outrageous for a woman to be drinking and smoking alone. But Segatori made her own rules in her little kingdom in Montmartre.
The story ends rather sadly. Van Gogh and Segatori split up and she eventually had to sell the café and the paintings. But it wasn't for nothing. Segatori received immortality and now lives on the walls of museums worldwide, including here at Ordrupgaard.
🖼️ Vincent van Gogh, "In the Café: Agostina Segatori in Le Tambourin", January–March 1887. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
🖼️ Camille Corot, "Interrupted Reading", c. 1870, Art Institute of Chicago
🖼️ Édouard Manet, "Italian Woman", 1860, private collection
🖼️ Jules Chéret, Poster for Café du Tambourin, 1885
THE SUN IS OUT 🔆
And you made it halfway through the week! So why not celebrate with an Ordrupgaard visit?
We're open until 19.00 today. And if you're under 26 or a student, you also get a free entry between 16.00-19.00.
See you later? ✨
FANCY A CAFÉ VISIT THIS WEEK? ☕
Then why not switch out the crowded cafés of Copenhagen with the historic cafés of Paris in the years around 1900?
We promise you'll be in good company, as you'll be right next to legendary artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Édouard Vuillard as well as Nordic painters, poets and creative innovators who helped shape the café communities around the world.
Not to rush you, but the exhibition ends on the 31st of May. So down that café au lait of yours and travel back in time at Ordrupgaard. ✨
WAIT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THE TREES? 🌲
That's what we were asked quite a few times last week when we, together with artist Camilla Berner, let the next generation of landscape gardeners loose in the historic sculpture park with pencils and paper.
Together with @roskildetekniskeskole and @glyptoteket , we're working on an educational project that explores the park's flora and fauna, and how museums can develop teaching programs for aspiring gardeners by activating the park in new ways.
And now, about those trees you're probably wondering about. Why were you running around drawing on them? ✏️
The exercise was based on a technique called frottage, which most people have probably tried in art class. The technique is especially associated with the Surrealists and the artist Max Ernst, but here it was used to bring the students closer to the different tree species. And don't worry, no trees were harmed during the process.🌿
The finished drawings were finally presented in a mini exhibition under the tree canopies, accompanied by collective reflections. The drawings can not only be used to identify the park's various tree species such as birch, copper beech, pine and dove tree by getting close to their surfaces and growth patterns.
The exercise also provides a deeper, meditative understanding of nature by allowing students to come into close contact with nature's patterns, surfaces, colors and scents.
Thanks to the team for a lovely day outdoors!
The project is supported by @slotsogkulturstyrelsen
LAST CHANCE 🌹
Normally we whip out this phrase when talking about special exhibitions like our current Café Society (closing May 31, don't say we didn't warn you).
But this time? We've got something else entirely, that you don't want to miss!
The petals are starting to abandon ship from our glorious magnolia tree, the same beauty that announced spring some weeks ago.
This is your final window to catch those blooms doing their thing against a blue sky backdrop, before they peace out completely and hand the stage over to fresh green leaves. 🌿
WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! ⚒️
Art and the working class have been intertwined since the late 1800s, through motives and depictions that depicted the lives of the workers and their manual labour.
In Denmark, one of the pioneering movements challenging the former idyllic, sanitised landscape paintings was the Funen Painters. Influenced by Kristian Zahrtmann, they abandoned the Danish Academy's stuffy traditions and dove headfirst into Naturalism and Realism—painting the everyday lives of working people: farmers, manure gatherers, and their beautifully unglamorous way of living.
These rustic paintings sparked a full-blown dispute in 1907 across major Danish newspapers. Critics sneered at what they called the "peasant painters," declaring their motives weren't gorgeous enough for the upper class' refined taste.
How did it turn out? The Funen Painters won the battle, backed by Danish poets and intellectuals, broadening the boundaries of who deserved representation in Danish art.
Here's Peter Hansen's (1868-1928) "Høslet on the Meadow, South Funen" from 1902. The painting is a stunning blend of field workers on a hot summer's day, and French Impressionist techniques: broad brushstrokes, lush colours, all representing the beauty in a hard days work in the meadows.
Happy International Workers' Day to you all!
🖼️ Peter Hansen, "Høslet on the Meadow, South Funen", 1902. Oil on canvas. (excerpt).
