Øregård Museum is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. Although primarily co ...

located in Hellerup in the northern outskirts of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

. It is owned by

Gentofte Municipality Gentofte Kommune is a municipality (Danish, '' kommune'') in the Capital Region of Denmark (''Region Hovedstaden'') on the east coast of the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in eastern Denmark. It covers an area of , and has a total population ...

and holds a topographic collection of pictures from Copenhagen and the area north of the city. It also hosts special exhibitions. The building is a former country house built by a wealthy merchant, active in the

triangle trade Triangular trade or triangle trade is trade between three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. It has been used to offset t ...

on the

Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies ( da, Dansk Vestindien) or Danish Antilles or Danish Virgin Islands were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with ; Saint John ( da, St. Jan) with ; and Saint Croix with . The ...

History and architecture

Øregård is a former country house built by

Johannes Søbøtker Johannes Søbøtker (9 May 1777 – 23 March 1854) was a Danish merchant, planter and colonial administrator who served as of St. Thomas and St. John in the Danish West Indies. His former country house Øregård in Hellerup now serves as an ...

, a merchant, plantation owner and shipping agent who was a partner in one of Denmark's largest trading companies and had made a fortune in sugar plantations, shipping and the lucrative

between Denmark,

Danish Gold Coast The Danish Gold Coast ( da, Danske Guldkyst or ''Dansk Guinea'') comprised the colonies that Denmark–Norway controlled in Africa as a part of the Gold Coast (roughly present-day southeast Ghana), which is on the Gulf of Guinea. It was coloni ...

and the former

. Like many of his contemporaries in trade and shipping, Søbøtker became a very wealthy member of an emerging

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. Th ...

which was becoming a major force in the 19th century and was acquiring the habits that had previously been reserved for the aristocracy. Over recent decades, it had become common for people to build stately summer residences north of the city while spending winters in a town mansion in Copenhagen. In 1806, Søbøtker acquired a farm, ''Øregaard'', in Hellerup and commissioned the French architect

Joseph-Jacques Ramée Joseph-Jacques Ramée (April 26, 1764 in Charlemont, France — May 18, 1842 at the Chateau de Beaurains, Noyon) was a French architect, interior designer, and landscape architect working within the neoclassicist idiom. He was a student of the ...

to build a suitable country house on the property. Ramée was at that time working out of

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

but designed a number of similar houses in the same area for other wealthy families, including

Sophienholm Sophienholm is a former manor house and exhibition venue located north on the shore of Lake Bagsværd in Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality in the northern outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark. The main building was originally a country home built in 1769 ...

for

Constantin Brun Johan Christian Constantin Brun (27 November 1746 – 19 February 1836) was a German-Danish merchant. Born in Germany, came to Denmark as Royal administrator of the trade on the Danish West Indies and in the same time built a successful private tr ...

and Hellerupgård. The resulting building was a simple, white-washed Neoclassical building, typical of Ramée's work around that time. Ramée also designed the surrounding park which was laid out in English style as a Romantic

landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

with an artificial lake and grotto. Søbøtker maintained an extravagant lifestyle and in the same time the meagre times which followed the English Wars and the national bankruptcy in 1813 hit his business enterprises hard. In 1821 he had to sell Øregård, and moved to the Danish West Indies where he settled on his estate on Saint Croix and later became governor of Saint John and Saint Thomas. Øregård came under new ownership and was converted into a museum and was ultimately acquired by

in 1917 and converted into a museum. The park was carefully renovated by

Gudmund Nyeland Brandt Gudmund Nyeland Brandt (17 March 1878 in Frederiksberg – 30 April 1945 in Kessel-lo) was a Danish landscape architect who was internationally renowned. Career Brandt was born at Frederiksberg, Denmark. His father, Peter Christoffer Brandt, was ...

, municipal gardener and later parks director in Hentofte from 1914 to 1841, and was converted into a public park.

Collections and exhibitions

Øregård Museum holds a large topographic collection of around 3,000 pictures—oil paintings, watercolours, engravings and drawings—which depict Copenhagen and the area of the city. The collection covers the period from 1750 to 1930 and contains works by both famous and not-so-famous artists. A large part of the collection came from the private collection of Jacob Hegel (1851–1918). He was managing director of

Gyldendal Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag A/S, usually referred to simply as Gyldendal () is a Danish publishing house. Founded in 1770 by Søren Gyldendal, it is the oldest and largest publishing house in Denmark, offering a wide selection of ...

, Denmark's largest publishing house, and a passionate art collector. After his death, his widow, Julie Hoel, bequeathed most of the collection to Gentofte Municipality. They moved it to Øregård which opened to the public in 1921. The museum also hosts two to three special exhibitions a year and arranges a variety of events. The special exhibitions cover both older and more modern art. There is a special tradition for presenting retrospective exhibitions with artists who were underrated, or experienced adversity, in their own day. Examples have been

Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann Anna Maria Elisabeth Lisinska Jerichau-Baumann (21 November 1819 – 11 July 1881) was a Poland, Polish-Denmark, Danish painter. She was married to the sculptor Jens Adolf Jerichau. Early life and career Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann was born in ...

Bertha Wegmann Bertha Wegmann (1847–1926) was a Danish portrait painter of German ancestry. She was the first woman to hold a chair at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Life When Bertha Wegmann was five years old, her family moved to Copenhagen, where her ...

Marie Krøyer Marie Triepcke Krøyer Alfvén (11 June 1867 – 25 May 1940) commonly known as Marie Krøyer, was a Danish painter. She is remembered principally as the wife of Peder Severin Krøyer, one of the most successful members of the artists' colony kno ...

, Hugo Larsen, Paul Fischer and

Vilhelm Hammershøi Vilhelm Hammershøi (), often anglicised as Vilhelm Hammershoi (15 May 186413 February 1916), was a Danish painter. He is known for his poetic, subdued portraits and interiors.Souren Melikian,Hammershoi's decade of brilliance, before banality set ...

. Other exhibitions relate to the history of the building, including the Danish West Indies, or to the surrounding area.

List of owners

* 1806-1821:

* 1821-1833: Johan Jørgen Hunæus * 1833-1843:

Joseph Hambro Joseph Hambro (4 November 1780 – 3 October 1848) was a Danish merchant, banker and political advisor. Early life Joseph Hambro was born in 1780 in Copenhagen, Denmark.Andrew St George, 'Hambro, Baron Carl Joachim (1807–1877)', Oxford Diction ...

* 1843-1873:

Andreas Nicolai Hansen Andreas Nicolai Hansen (14 September 1798 – 12 December 1873) was a Danish businessman and landowner. His former town mansion in Copenhagen was listed on the Danish registry of protected buildings and places in 1939. Early life and career Ha ...

* 1873-1893: Alfred Hansen * 1893-1917: Detlef Ohlsen * 1917: Gentofte Municipality

References

External links

Official website

Source
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oregard Museum Art museums and galleries in Copenhagen Houses in Gentofte Municipality Houses completed in 1808 Listed buildings and structures in Gentofte Municipality Museums in the Capital Region of Denmark Buildings and structures associated with the Grut Hansen family Joseph-Jacques Ramée buildings

History and architecture

Collections and exhibitions

List of owners

See also

References

External links