Statens Museum for Kunst

At a beautiful location in the Østre Anlæg park in central Copenhagen, near the Nørreport and Østerport stations, stands Statens Museum for Kunst, Denmark’s national gallery. The old museum’s architecture catches your eye first with its elaborate facade. Once inside, a wide vista opens up, revealing a view across old and new buildings, and then out into the surrounding park—a spectacular framework for the museum’s rich collection of Danish and international art from the 14th Century to present day.

Statens Museum for Kunst boasts the Royal Collection of Paintings and Sculpture, the Royal Collection of Prints and Drawings, and the Royal Cast Collection, which is situated in Vestindisk Pakhus at Toldbodgade in the harbor area.

The original museum building was completed in 1896, designed by Jens Vilhelm Dahlerup, who created the jubilant setting by mixing a number of different historic styles. As time passed, however, the monumental appearance could not eclipse the fact that the Museum collections suffered from lack of space inside.

Architect Nils Koppel masterminded the first conversion in 1970 whereby the exhibition floor space was extended by a total of 10 new rooms. In the fashion of the time, the works were previously displayed close to each other, side by side, in clear chronological orders.

In 1998 the museum opened its large new building. Designed by Architect Anna Maria Indrio, the addition parallels Dahlerup’s original design, and is at the same time linked to and separated from it by means of the glass roofed passage. The idea behind the new extension was that it should neither be superior nor subordinate to Dahlerup’s; it forms a whole in a contemporary, modernistic language much like the dialog the Statens Museum tries to encourage.