Image: Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen
Thorvaldsens Museum in Copenhagen will open ‘Life, Longing & Landscape – Thorvaldsen’s Painting Collection’ on 9 September 2026, presenting works from Bertel Thorvaldsen’s private collection in nine newly renovated galleries. The exhibition draws on a collection of more than 350 paintings, all of which formed part of the first public display held when the museum opened in 1848.
The selection is intended to illuminate both Thorvaldsen’s personal taste as a collector and the artistic currents of his time. Several paintings are being shown for the first time in many years after having been kept in the museum’s storage, in part because they sit outside the conventional narrative of Denmark’s Golden Age. The exhibition includes works by lesser-known Danish and international artists, among them Dietrich Wilhelm Lindau, Károly Markó the Elder and Albert Küchler, alongside paintings by prominent 19th-century figures such as C.W. Eckersberg, Constantin Hansen and Wilhelm Marstrand.
Organised across nine rooms, the presentation groups the paintings around themes including festive everyday life, particularly scenes set in Italy; romantic visions of ancient ruins; and dramatic landscapes and nature scenes far removed from Denmark’s comparatively tranquil environments. The museum describes the works as often more theatrical, saturated in colour and narrative-driven than the image commonly associated with Golden Age painting.
Travel and artistic exchange provide a further thread through the exhibition. The paintings reflect the influence of journeys and stays in places including Rome and Munich, where Nordic artists encountered new subjects, moods and artistic ideals. Those impressions were subsequently brought back and reinterpreted through the tastes, longings and cultural imaginings of the period.
Among the works identified in the museum’s presentation are J.C. Dahl’s ‘Norsk Fjelddal’ (1821), C.W. Eckersberg’s ‘A Sleeping Woman in Antique Dress, Alcyone’s Nurse’ (1813) and Dietrich Lindau’s ‘Saltarello Danced in a Roman Osteria’ (1827). The display forms part of Thorvaldsens Museum’s four-year strategy ‘Thorvaldsen: From Past to Present’ and is supported by the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation.
The museum will mark the opening on 9 September with a free public programme from 4pm to 7pm. The schedule includes an opening speech and wine in the museum foyer, followed by performances of ‘SPEKTRUM’ at 4.30pm and 5.30pm. Developed by musicians from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in collaboration with visual artist Jeppe Vinum, the work combines an Italian medieval hymn with newly composed music and culminates in the museum’s Christ Hall, where light projections transform the ceiling into a projection surface.
Thorvaldsens Museum, built between 1839 and 1848 to designs by architect Michael Gottlieb Bindesbøll, is Denmark’s first purpose-built museum building. Thorvaldsen’s grave lies at the centre of its inner courtyard. The museum is located at Bertel Thorvaldsens Plads 2 in Copenhagen and is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to 5pm.
