Thorvaldsens Museum

Bertel Thorvaldsen was the most celebrated neoclassical sculptor of his generation, working mainly in Rome, and when he returned to Copenhagen the city built him a museum, finished in 1848, which was Denmark's first. It was designed as a single work: an ochre building with Egyptian-influenced tapering doorways, an exterior frieze showing the sculptor's homecoming, and inside a sequence of small vaulted rooms each painted in strong colour with pattern on floors, walls and ceilings, so the white marble stands against saturated red, blue and green. The collection holds his own works and models along with the antiquities and paintings he collected in Rome. Thorvaldsen is buried in the central courtyard, under a simple slab planted with ivy.

History

Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), the Danish and Icelandic Neoclassical sculptor, lived and worked in Rome for most of his life, from 1796 to 1838. The idea of a museum for him in Copenhagen arose in the mid-1830s: a committee was set up in December 1836 on the initiative of Hans Puggaard, it launched a nationwide fundraising campaign on 10 January 1837, and a board was elected at a general assembly on 21 June 1837. Designed by Michael Gottlieb Bindesbøll, the museum was built from 1838 to 1848 on Slotsholmen beside Christiansborg Palace (Wikipedia, Thorvaldsen Museum).

What to look for

• Painted vaulted rooms - marble set against saturated colour and pattern.
• Thorvaldsen's plaster models - the working versions behind the finished marbles.
• The exterior frieze - the sculptor's return to Copenhagen in relief.
• The courtyard grave - Thorvaldsen buried at the centre of his own museum.

When to go

Year round. One to two hours. Closed Mondays. Daylight matters here because the rooms are lit from above, so a bright day shows the colour best. It is never crowded.

What to expect

It is one sculptor in one style, and neoclassical marble is not to everyone's taste; visitors who find it cold will find a lot of it. Labelling is sparse in places. The building is on several levels with stairs. There is no cafe.

Nearby

Christiansborg Palace is next door; Nyhavn is a short walk north.

Key facts