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The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek ("ny" means "new" in Danish; "Glyptotek" comes from the Greek root ''glyphein'', to carve, and ''theke'', storing place), commonly known simply as Glyptoteket, 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 (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...
in
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
, Denmark. The collection represents the private art collection of
Carl Jacobsen Carl Christian Hillman Jacobsen (2 March 1842 – 11 January 1914) was a Danish brewer, art collector and philanthropist. Though often preoccupied with his cultural interests, Jacobsen was a shrewd and visionary businessman and initiated the tra ...
(1842–1914), the son of the founder of the
Carlsberg Breweries Carlsberg A/S (; ) is a Danish multinational brewer. Founded in 1847 by J. C. Jacobsen, the company's headquarters is in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since Jacobsen's death in 1887, the majority owner of the company has been the Carlsberg Foundation. T ...
. Primarily a sculpture museum, as indicated by the name, the focal point of the museum is antique sculpture from the ancient cultures around the
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
, including Egypt, Rome and Greece, as well as more
modern sculpture Modern sculpture is generally considered to have begun with the work of Auguste Rodin, who is seen as the progenitor of modern sculpture. While Rodin did not set out to rebel against the past, he created a new way of building his works. He "dissol ...
s such as a collection of
Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...
's works, considered to be the most important outside France. However, the museum is equally noted for its collection of paintings that includes an extensive collection of French impressionists and
Post-impressionists Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction aga ...
as well as Danish Golden Age paintings. The French Collection includes works by painters such as
Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...
,
Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...
,
Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( ; ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...
,
Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; ; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that ...
, Degas and Paul Cézanne, Cézanne, as well as those by
Post-impressionists Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction aga ...
such as van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec and Pierre Bonnard, Bonnard. The museum's collection includes all the bronze sculptures of Degas, including the series of dancers. Numerous works by Norwegian-Danish sculptor Stephan Sinding are featured prominently in various sections of the museum.


History


First Glyptoteque

Carl Jacobsen Carl Christian Hillman Jacobsen (2 March 1842 – 11 January 1914) was a Danish brewer, art collector and philanthropist. Though often preoccupied with his cultural interests, Jacobsen was a shrewd and visionary businessman and initiated the tra ...
was a dedicated art collector. He was particularly interested in antique art, but over the years he also acquired a considerable collection of French and Danish sculptures. When his Carlsberg (district)#Carl's Villa, private villa in 1882 was extended with a winter garden, sculptures soon outnumbered plants in it. The same year the collection was opened to the public. In the following years the museum was expanded on a number of occasions to meet the need for more space for his steadily growing collections. In 1885 his 'house museum' had grown to a total of 19 art museum#Galleries in museums, galleries, the first 14 of which had been designed by Vilhelm Dahlerup while Hack Kampmann had built the last four as well as conducted a redesign of the winter garden.


New museum

In spite of the many extensions, it was finally clear the existing premises were inadequate and that a new building was needed. On 8 March 1888 Carl Jacobsen donated his collection to the Danish State and the City of Copenhagen on condition that they provided a suitable building for its exhibition. Copenhagen's Fortifications of Copenhagen (17th century), old fortifications had recently been abandoned and a site was chosen on a ravelin outside ''Holcks Bastion'' in the city's Fortifications of Copenhagen (17th century)#Vestervold, Western Rampart, just south of the Tivoli Gardens which had been founded in 1843. Jacobsen was displeased with the location which he found to be too far from the city centre and he had also reservations about the proximity of Tivoli which he found common. Instead he wanted a building on the emerging The City Hall Square, Copenhagen, new city hall square, yet in the end he accepted. It was Carl Jacobsen who chose the name for the museum, with inspiration from Ludwig I of Bavaria, Ludwig I's Glyptothek in Munich, as well as Vilhelm Dahlerup as the architect for the assignment. The moat around the radan was filled and the new museum opened first on 1 May 1897. At first it only included Jacobsen's modern collection with French and Danish works from the 18th century. In January 1899 Carl Jacobsen donated his collection of Antique art to the museum which made an expansion necessary. It was designed by Hack Kampmann while Dahlerup designed a winter garden which connected the new wing to the old building. It was inaugurated in 1906. In 1996 the museum was once again extended, this time with an infill constructed in one of its courtyards to the design of Henning Larsen. In 2006, the building underwent a major renovation programme under the direction of Danish architects Dissing + Weitling. and Bonde Ljungar Arkitekter MAA.


Architecture

The building is often noted for its elegance in its own right and the synthesis it creates with the works of art. The Vilhelm Dahlerup, Dahlerup Wing, the oldest part of the museum, is a lavish historicism (architecture), historicist building. The façade is in red brick with polished granite columns in a renaissance architecture, Venetian renaissance style. It houses the French and Danish collections. The Hack Kampmann, Kampmann Wing is a more simple, Neoclassical architecture, neo-classical building, built as a series of galleries around a central auditorium used for lectures, small concerts, symposiums and poetry readings. The two wings are connected by the Winter Garden with mosaic floors, tall palms, a fountain and topped by a dome made in copper and wrought iron. The Henning Larsen Wing is a minimalistic infill, built in a former inner courtyard and affording access to the roof. Official meetings and banquets sometimes take place in the Glyptotek, such as the certification of Polio-free Europe, 21 June 2002.


Collections

The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek's collections comprise more than 10,000 works of art.


Antique collection

The Antique collection displays sculptures and other antiquities from the ancient cultures around the
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
. The extensive Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collection comprises marble statues, small terra cotta statues, reliefs, pottery and other artifacts. They include 950 sculptures and Etruscan antiquities that were purchased by German archaeologist Wolfgang Helbig, Theidoit Jacobsen's broker in Rome for 25 years. The Egyptian Collection comprises more than 1,900 pieces, dating from 3000 BCE to the 1st century CE and representing both Ancient Egypt, the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, Middle Kingdom and the Egypt (Roman province), Roman Period. It was founded in 1882 when Carl Jacobsen made his first Egyptian acquisition, a Sarcophagus purchased from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Many of the objects in the collection were augmented when the Ny Carlsberg Foundation sponsored excavations in Egypt in the beginning of the 20th century led by the English Egyptology, Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, W. M. F. Petrie . The holdings include several mummy, mummies, displayed in a crypt-like gallery below the normal galleries. The Near Eastern Collection spans a period of 7150 years, the oldest artifact being from 6500 BCE and the youngest being from 650 CE, featuring such cultures as the Levant, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Persia.


French Collection

The main focus of the French Collection is 19th-century French painting and sculpture. The painting collection contains works by such painters as Jacques-Louis David, David and Manet, as well as a large collection of Impressionist painters such as Monet, Cézanne and Bonnard. The single painter represented with most paintings is Paul Gauguin with more than 40 works. The museum also holds a large collection of French 19th-century sculpture by artists such as Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Carpeaux and Rodin, the Rodin collection being one of the largest in the world, as well as a complete collection of Degas' bronze sculptures.


Danish Collection

The Danish Collection contains a large collection of Danish Golden Age paintings by painters such as Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Eckersberg, Christen Købke, Købke and Johan Lundbye, Lundbye. It also contains the largest representation of Danish sculpture, Danish Golden Age Sculpture in the country.


European Collection

The European Collection comprises works from the 18th to the 20th century. Represented sculptors include Neoclassicists such as Antonio Canova, Canova, Johan Tobias Sergel, Sergel, Carstens, Flaxman, Rauch and Baily, as well as Modernists like Meunier, Klinger, Picasso and Giacometti. The collection also comprises a small collection of Modern paintings of artists such as Arp, Ernst, Miró, Poliakoff and Gilioli.


Auditorium


Concerts

The Auditorium is mainly used for classical concerts, including the ''Helge Jacobsen concert series''. ''Helge Jacobsen Concerts'' have included the Austrian Hagen Quartet, the Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova, the French pianist Cédric Tiberghien, the Russian bariton Sergei Leiferkus, the French Ysaÿe Quartet (1984), Ysaÿe Quartet and German tenor Jonas Kaufmann among others. The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is in general noted for its good acoustics, both in the auditorium and in the surrounding long halls. The Auditorium has been used as a rehearsal room by the Early music vocal ensemble Musica Ficta (Denmark), Musica Ficta, often within opening hours of the museum, occasionally adding music to the museum experience, and it has also regularly performed concerts, both in the Auditorium and the surrounding halls. Pioneer overtone singing, overtone singer David Hykes in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in 1997. Occasionally the Auditorium is also used for other musical genres, such as the Danish Klezmer group Mames Babegenush.


Other cultural events

The Auditorium is also used for other cultural events, such as poetry readings, lectures and debates.


In popular culture

The museum is used as a location in the films ''Stjerneskud'' (1947), ''Fodboldpræsten'' (1951), ''Dorte'' (1951), ''Mød mig på Cassiopeia'' (1951), ''Bruden fra Dragstrup'' (1955) and ''Den kære familie'' (1962). The building was the inspiration for the set design of the Valkyries' Rock in Kasper Holten's 2006 production of Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' at the Copenhagen Opera House.


Gallery


See also

* Carlsberg Foundation * Carlsberg (district), The Carlsberg District * H. C. Andersens Boulevard * Paul Dubois (sculptor) * Laurentian Sow (sculpture)


References


External links


Museum website

Renderings
in the Danish National Art Library
Virtual tour of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
provided by Google Arts & Culture * {{Authority control Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, 1882 establishments in Denmark Art museums and galleries in Copenhagen Art museums and galleries established in 1882 Collections of classical sculpture Buildings and structures completed in 1897 Egyptological collections Former private collections Hack Kampmann buildings Historicist architecture in Copenhagen Museums of ancient Greece Museums of ancient Rome Music venues in Copenhagen Neoclassical architecture in Copenhagen Sculpture galleries in Denmark Vilhelm Dahlerup buildings Carl Jacobsen