Missing Link in Art History: The First Private Collectors of National Contemporary Art in the Nordic and Baltic Countries
Seminar in the Lillehammer Art Museum
Missing Link in Art History: The First Private Collectors of National Contemporary Art in the Nordic and Baltic Countries
Programme
12.00‒12.20 Opening words: Nils Ohlsen (Director, Lillehammer Art Museum) and Liis Pählapuu (Art historian)
12.20‒12.50 Gertrud Oelsner (Director, Ordrupgaard). Collecting the Danish canon – and beyond
12.50‒13.20 Line Daatland (Director of Collections and Exhibitions, Kode Bergen Art Museum) An audacious vision: Rasmus Meyer’s collections
13.20‒13.50 Øystein Ustvedt (Curator, National Museum, Oslo) Being contemporary. Olaf Schou and collecting art from one’s own time
13.50‒14.00 Questions
14.00‒14.30 Coffee break
14.30‒15.00 Eero Epner (Art historian) Art collectors in Estonia before 1945 and their socio-cultural role (presentation on the web)
15.00‒15.30 Baiba Vanaga (Curator, Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga) Insight into the practice of local art collecting in the territory of Latvia before 1918
15.30‒16.00 Cecilie Skeide (Conservator, Lillehammer Art Museum) The Lundes as art collectors, environmental creators and museum founders
16.00‒16.30 Nils Ohlsen (Director, Lillehammer Art Museum) Missing link in art history: private collectors in the Nordic countries 1880‒1920
16.30‒17.00 Discussion
Research project “Transnational Perspectives on Modernisation and Nation-Building: Comparative Research Network on Scandinavian and Baltic Art (2024 – 2025) – Art Museum of Estonia”
Project coordinator:
Liis Pählapuu
Collecting the Danish canon – and beyond
Gertrud Oelsner (Director, Ordrupgaard)
Heinrich Hirschsprung (1836-1908) and Wilhelm Hansen (1868-1936) each founded his own museum in Copenhagen and the surrounding area: The Hirschsprung Collection, which opened its doors in 1911, and Ordrupgaard, which opened to the public in 1918.
Both collections contain significant representations of Danish Golden Age art and, with this as a starting point, the differences and similarities in the practices of the two collectors and how their efforts each had impacts on the understanding of national Danish art history are highlighted.
Gallery
An audacious vision: Rasmus Meyer’s collections
Line Daatland (Director of Collections and Exhibitions, Kode Bergen Art Museum)
When, in 1916, a major part of Rasmus Meyer’s (1858–1916) art collection was donated to the city of Bergen, it was the largest single donation of privately owned art to the public ever made in Norway. The deed of gift listed 818 artworks by 67 artists, of which 550 were paintings, and more than a hundred items of historical furniture and other interior artefacts. Housed since 1924 in its own purpose-built gallery in the centre of Bergen, the collection consists mainly of Norwegian art from the period 1814 to 1914: the first century of Norway’s independence.
From a contemporary perspective, what makes Rasmus Meyer’s collection unique is, above all, his collecting strategy, and the consistently high quality of the works. This presentation will discuss the development of Meyer’s collecting practices, in comparison with those of some of the other collectors at the time, and look at factors that give the collection its enduring significance on an international level.
Being contemporary. Olaf Schou and collecting art from one’s own time
Øystein Ustvedt (Curator, National Museum, Oslo)
Olaf Shou (1861–1925) was one of Norway’s most important art collectors. He also shifted the focus of art collecting in his home country. He redirected attention from established old masters and historical valuables to works created by his contemporaries and to philanthropic support. In doing so, he set a new standard and paved the way for later large-scale art collectors, such as Johannes Sejersted Bødtker and Rolf E. Stenersen.
Art collectors in Estonia before 1945 and their socio-cultural role
Eero Epner (Art historian)
Estonian art life was relatively limited to Baltic Germans until the early 20th century. It wasn’t until after the first Estonian art exhibition in 1906 that, in addition to artists, art collectors and supporters of artists started to emerge. Art and politics went hand in hand, as Estonia got its independence in 1918 and after that the Estonian bourgeoisie started to bloom. But how was it connected with art and collecting art?
Gallery
Insight into the practice of local art collecting in the territory of Latvia before 1918
Baiba Vanaga (Curator, Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga)
There are no known serious private art collectors in the history of Latvian art who were passionate about collecting Baltic art before the establishment of an independent state on the territory of Latvia. However, in the 19th-century press and in materials about cultural and historical exhibitions held in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the formation of the collection of the Riga City Art Museum (now the Latvian National Museum of Art), which opened in 1905, there are references to people whose private collections also included significant works by local artists. In my paper I will try to highlight some of them.
The Lundes as art collectors, environmental creators and museum founders
Cecilie Skeide (Conservator, Lillehammer Art Museum)
In 1921 Eva and Einar Lunde donated their art collection to the city of Lillehammer. This was the starting point for the Lillehammer Art Museum. The collection was marked by their close contact with contemporary artists of the time, who gathered around the Lunde family in Lillehammer.
I want to take a closer look at the Lunde family’s ideology and business, with a particular focus on the art collection, and their significance and ripple effects locally and nationally.
Missing link in art history: private collectors in the Nordic countries 1880-1920
Nils Ohlsen (Director, Lillehammer Art Museum)
Such works as P.S. Krøyer’s Hip Hip Hurrah, Edvard Munch’s The Scream and Richard Bergh’s Nordic Summer Evening are now considered icons of Nordic art. The focus is typically on the artistic evaluation of these works and the development of their creators.
However, those who played a decisive role as intermediaries between artists’ studios and the public, i.e. those who bought these paintings shortly after their creation, ultimately securing them for today’s museums, are often overlooked. These were the first private collectors of Nordic contemporary art. They form the missing link in the common narrative of Nordic art history.
