Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

Carl Jacobsen, who ran the Carlsberg brewery, spent decades buying sculpture and antiquities and gave the collection to the city, and the museum opened in stages from 1897. Its centre is the Winter Garden, a glazed dome over palms, a fountain and stone floors, which functions as the museum's living room and is where most visitors end up sitting. Around it are two very different halves: a large collection of Mediterranean antiquities, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and above all Roman portrait busts, of which the Roman group is one of the strongest anywhere outside Italy, and a nineteenth-century French and Danish collection with a substantial holding of Rodin, Degas bronzes including the full set of dancers, and Gauguin from the years his Danish wife's family kept the works.

History

Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of the Carlsberg breweries, collected antique art above all, but also French and Danish sculpture, and when a winter garden was added to his villa in 1882 the sculptures soon outnumbered the plants; that year the collection opened to the public, and by 1885 his house museum had grown to 19 galleries, mostly by Vilhelm Dahlerup and Hack Kampmann. On 8 March 1888 he gave the collection to the state and the city of Copenhagen on condition that they provide a suitable building, and a site was found on a ravelin of the abandoned western ramparts, just south of Tivoli, which Jacobsen thought too far from the centre and too close to Tivoli, though he accepted it. He chose the name, inspired by Ludwig I's Glyptothek in Munich, and Dahlerup as architect, and the museum opened on 1 May 1897 with his modern French and Danish works. In January 1899 he gave his antique collection too, and Kampmann's new wing, joined to the old one by Dahlerup's winter garden, was inaugurated in 1906; Henning Larsen added an infill in a courtyard in 1996, and the building was renovated in 2006 (Wikipedia, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek).

What's there

• The Winter Garden - a glazed dome over palms and a fountain.
• Roman portrait busts - one of the great collections of Roman likenesses.
• Degas bronzes - the complete series of dancers and bathers.
• Gauguin paintings - works that came through his Danish family connection.

When to go

Year round; it is an indoor museum and works particularly well on a wet Copenhagen day. Two to three hours. Closed Mondays. The Winter Garden cafe is busiest at lunchtime.

What to expect

It is large and the two halves feel like separate museums, which can be disorienting. Some antiquities galleries are dimly lit. The building has many small level changes and older wings are less accessible. The cafe is expensive even by Copenhagen standards.

Nearby

Tivoli Gardens is across the road; the National Museum is a short walk.

Key facts