NATIONAL ART MUSEUM

SMK is Denmark's leading museum of fine art. The collection, mainly paintings, presents Western artistic creation from the Middle Ages to the present day. Two separate buildings are connected: one dedicated to the Old Masters, the other to modern and contemporary art.

The first, designed by Vilhelm Dahlerup and G.E.W. Møller in a style inspired by the Italian Renaissance, was built between 1889 and 1896. The second, conceived as a modern extension, was designed in 1998 by architects Anna Maria Indrio and Mads Møller, in part of the park to the rear. The two structures are linked by a glass-covered passageway known as the "Sculpture Alley". Castings and marbles occupy this interior "street", which runs the entire length of the museum. Concerts and dance performances are regularly held here. There's also a children's workshop.

Some 9,000 paintings and sculptures, around 300,000 drawings and engravings, and over 2,600 plaster casts. Part of the collection, which belonged to the Kunstkammer ("art chamber") of the Danish kings, has been augmented by numerous acquisitions.

Chronologically, the first rooms are devoted to European art between 1300 and 1800. A panorama of art-historical masterpieces, including major figures such as Andrea Mantegna, Lucas Cranach the Elder (5 works, including the Portrait of Luther), Tintoretto, Brueghel the Elder and Rembrandt.

One section is entirely dedicated to Danish and Nordic art from 1750 to 1900. A period known as the Danish Golden Age. You can admire works by Vilhelm Hammershøi(Double Portrait of the Artist and his Wife, A Farmhouse, Evening in the Drawing Room), Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg and L. A. Ring.

French avant-garde art from 1900 to 1930 is very well represented. Fauves and cubists predominate.

Henri Matisse(La Raie verte or Luxe II), Modigliani, Emil Nolde, Pablo Picasso and André Derain, in particular, introduced new reflections on the notion of modern art.

Finally, Danish and International Art after 1900 looks at the evolution towards modernity, from Expressionism and Surrealism to the most recent contemporary art, through the works of Per Kirkeby, Danh Vo and Ursula Reuter Christiansen.

A store and café round off a pleasant visit to this museum. It's a great place to spend the day!