This is Louisiana, But Not That Louisiana | Not Vikings 3

From Helsingor and Kronborg Castle, it was back on the train to our next stop: Humlbaek and the Louisiana museum of modern art. Named for the three wives of the original owner - who were all named Louise - Louisiana became an art museum in 1955. Modern art enthusiast and cheese wholesaler Knud Jensen bought the place with the aim to create the “appropriate atmosphere" wherein people "...feel obliged [...] to approach the works of art.” He succeeded in my book! The buildings, the grounds, and the art are so interwoven and beautiful as though the whole place is a work of art. It didn’t hurt that we had exquisite weather.

Welcome to Louisiana

Just walking there, I could feel myself start to unwind. Set in a neighborhood, the Louisiana museum had a very modest entrance for the glory that we’d see on the other side. The main building was the villa from 1855, but it has had extensive remodeling and expansion to better showcase the art within.

Well-manicured - yet modest - entrance

This Japanese Maple stole the show

Hall of glass

Once inside, we were treated to some serious modern art, which for me has always meant: possibly beautiful, possibly disturbing - often both - but no matter what it makes you think and feel something. First up was a collection from Kaari Upson, that was exactly what I hoped for: at once beautiful and disturbing. Next to her very textural portraits were a small installation of female porcelain doll figurines exposing their anuses (Clay Baby - strangely, @turbodb did not take a picture of these). What the artist was trying to say, we weren’t sure. Another room had a series of disembodied legs (no torso, no feet), hanging from the ceiling. Art!

Untitled, Kaari Upson

Next, we found ourselves looking at portraits of different people taken at each age (starting with a baby, ending with a 100-year-old) in Hans-Peter Feldmann’s 100 years. Looking at the portraits now, the sequence of pictures almost feels like a nod to the sequential portraits in the Fredericksborg castle/National Museum that progressed from aged to age. It was refreshing to see how beautiful each person appeared at each stage of their life; perhaps there is hope for us all yet.

100 years, by Hans-Peter Feldmann

Each room felt like it had been especially designed for the piece of art it held: A curved room for the series of portraits that forced you to consider each one on its own; a long hallway with a statue of a woman with very long legs that forced you to think about perspective; a grassy plateau just right for gently moving a Calder mobile. And a giant thumb.

Me with a giant thumb

Femme qui Marche, by Alberto Giacometti and the hallway in which she “Marches” or walks (courtesy of the Louisiana Museum)

Statue by Max Ernst with the perfect backdrop

One collection that was especially moving was that of Robert Longo. He takes still photographs, often from photojournalists, and recreates them on huge canvases out using charcoals. The museum and the artist had paired his drawings with sculptures and artifacts that made the scenes even more meaningful. We found his pieces very powerful and effective in making us bear witness.

Collapse, Robert Longo

@mini.turbodb taking a picture of Robert Longo’s Wave

After looking at the artwork inside, we sat outside, looking out at the water, with Sweden beyond. Behind us was Alexander Calder’s mobile gently swaying in the evening breeze. It was time for dinner.

Little Janey Waney, Alexander Calder

A bit museum-ed out, and with the sun fading into evening-in-Denmark low dim, we made our way to a recommended Italian joint, where we variously ate pizza (best option), lasagna, and a Bolognese with pasta that didn’t meet textural expectations. A train hop to home, and we collapsed into our beds.

Night-time in our courtyard in Copenhagen

The next day...

Today’s plan was to see as many museums and sights as we felt necessary, with the ability to bail whenever we felt like it, thanks to our Copenhagen pass which gave us free entry to all of the museums. The natural place to start was the Copenhagen Design Museum, at the request of the child, who had read a little bit about the museum options, and that one piqued her interest. Woot! We were off.

Nyhaven looked beautiful again

But first, we went to the House of Amber and its upstairs Amber Museum. In prehistoric times, the very sappy trees of Scandinavian forests fell, and the resin hardened to form amber that washed up on the shores of Denmark, including a lot of insects trapped in the amber (think: Jurassic Park) of which they had a lot in the museum. Amber, it turns out, was one of the first “precious stones” recognized by humans, and as such, it has been collected and carved into interesting shapes throughout history (as displayed in the first room of the museum). The store on the ground floor had all kinds of exquisite jewelry, doodads, and thingamabobs made of amber, and other stones too, which we enjoyed slightly more than the museum which seemed to be having a bit of a sewage leak issue and had an off-putting smell, which left us asking each other “was that you?”

House of Amber

It was time to get a move on - we had places to see! As we made our way to the Design Museum, we noticed a domed church that looked a lot like the Capitol Rotunda - the Frederikskirke church (Kirke = church in Danish), or the Marble Church. The foundation for the church was laid in 1749, but due to budget cuts and the death of the architect six years later, it was basically a ruin for 150 years until the government decided to sell the church to a wealthy real estate developer, with the caveat that he would build the church in the original style and donate it back to the state. His reward? The right to develop the adjacent land (note: the church is due west of the royal palace, so, no pressure…). Danes were skeptical of this deal, and the finance minister narrowly escaped impeachment. Another upside for the developer was that he used the church as way to promote his preferred sect of Lutheranism, and nationalism, by putting statues of his favorite Danes all around the top of the building (and a few notable biblical and religious figures too), like the philosophers Kierkegaard and Grundtvig (the head of his sect). The church was completed in 1894.

Frederikskirke “The Marble Church”

Moses! We recognized this one! (Is that Martin Luther behind him?)

We didn’t recognize this one.

It just so happened that we were in right part of town for day two of the Three Days of Design, so every gallery and store between the House of Amber and the Design Museum was full of very fashionable people looking very seriously at things like chairs and light fixtures. We would soon be joining them, though, admittedly, we were not quite as fashionable. We did, however, score some free tote bags (win!)

Lamps, Design Museum

Chairs, Design Museum

After reaching peak design, we exited and continued our self-guided meandering, until we sat down for lunch.

Bikes, everywhere.

An adorable Anglican Church - St. Albans

Guard guarding at the Amalienborg palace - no royals were home at the time

With lunch completed, we decided to take a much-touted boat tour. One friend took it three times on her last trip to Copenhagen. We were hoping that one trip would suffice (it did, and we loved it). While we revisited many spots we’d already seen (in some cases a few times), we didn’t mind - it was a beautiful day, and the guide provided the right mix of humor and history.

You look so familiar: Nyhaven canal from the boat

An apartment building built out of a former large missile factory - hence the open middle

The Peder Skram Danish Frigate famous for being the only Danish boat to have fired a missile and it was by accident (no one was injured)

Nyholm Central Guard House

Little Mermaid - which we only saw from the back - was surrounded by people clicking away at the small statue which you can barely make out on the protruding rock

Copenhagen Opera House. We learned that there are diving contests off the top in the summer - but only for professionals. We did notice that there were a lot of people swimming in the canals around Copenhagen - the water is remarkably clean

Frederikskirke/The Marble Church as seen from the water through the Amalienborg palace

Victoria in a Quadriga on Thorvaldsens-Museum

Our boat guide mentioned that we should see the oldest street in Copenhagen. We could not resist, despite the fact that the name Magstraede means toilet street, so named for the latrine that used to be at the end of the street.

Magstraede, oldest street in Copenhagen

Another bicycle, this one with poppies that reminded me of WWI remembrance

A short distance away was another museum, this time Ny Glyptotek, which I had heard was pretty cool. It did not disappoint. The immediate interior is an enormous conservatory, filled with plants and sculptures. From there, were rooms of Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan sculptures that were acquired by the founder of the museum (Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg brewing) or from excavations his foundation sponsored, mostly in the early 20th century.

Water Mother, Kai Nielsen

Egyptian Heads

Cat and Human Sarcophagi. The sarcophagi were the first purchases (from the Egyptian Museum) for the museum

Egyptian Figurines

Roman Busts. There were rooms filled with Roman busts.

After seeing many, many Roman heads, my energy was beginning to wane. Yes, there was more museum to see, but hadn’t we gotten the Copenhagen pass so that we could bail if we reached maximum museum quotient? Dan encouraged us to press on. I am so glad he did, because it would have been a shame to leave before seeing their impressionist collection including this:

Landscape from Saint-Remy, Vincent van Gogh

It was amazing how much seeing beautiful artwork, especially those which were the favorites of both of my grandmothers, lifted my spirits. Going to the roof deck and looking out at the world helped too.

Lion and the snake outside Ny Glyptotek

Back outside and feeling a bit hungry, we decided to explore another local attraction just around the corner: Tivoli Gardens. A combination of an amusement park, garden, music venue, and restaurant experience, it was sure to delight and get us fed. It is said that the King gave Georg Carstensen permission to build Tivoli Gardens because Georg told him “When the people are amusing themselves, they do not think about politics.” I found that to be true! We obliged the child’s desire for German food (she’s been having a hankering for schnitzel since she had it and love it in upstate New York) and then played some games.

Classic

It turns out that she is a pretty good shot with a bow and arrow (Kennolyn Camp for the win!)

The next day...

Given our frenetic museum and sightseeing the previous day, we decided to chill out for a day. The plan had been to go on a bicycle tour downtown - but we had really already done all that, so we cancelled and had a leisurely breakfast instead, then strolled through our neighborhood.

Yum

Our overall lack of plans meant that when we found ourselves in a beautiful park, I was the last to realize it was a cemetery! And not really worrying about where we were made finding Hans Christen Andersen’s grave all that more fun.

Hans Christen Andersen’s Grave

Planless-ness also gave rise to an impromptu game of basketball, time to wander and shop with ease (but no success) in various thrift stores, and overall, time to hang out together.