Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

Why it is renowned

The Glyptotek's Rodin collection is counted the most important outside France, and it holds all of Degas's bronze sculptures, the series of dancers among them.¹ Its antique sculpture from Egypt, Greece and Rome sits beside French paintings by David, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, van Gogh and Gauguin.¹ It has more than 10,000 works and had over 500,000 visitors in 2019.¹

The story

Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of the Carlsberg breweries, opened his private collection to the public in the winter garden of his villa in 1882.¹ In 1888 he gave it to the Danish state and the city of Copenhagen on condition that they built a home for it, and the museum opened next to Tivoli on 1 May 1897 in a building by Vilhelm Dahlerup.¹ Hack Kampmann added a wing for the antique collection in 1906, joined to the first by a winter garden under a glass dome, and Henning Larsen built a new gallery in a courtyard in 1996.¹ Jacobsen named it after Ludwig I's Glyptothek in Munich.¹

What to know it by

• The Winter Garden1906Vilhelm DahlerupPalm garden under a glass dome between the two wings
• Rodin collectionAuguste RodinThe largest outside France
• Degas bronzesEdgar DegasAll his bronze sculptures, the dancers among them
• Greek and Roman SculptureThe antique collection given by Jacobsen in 1899