SMK – National Gallery of Denmark

Why it is renowned

SMK holds European paintings by Mantegna, Cranach, Titian, Rubens and Rembrandt, and early French modernism by Matisse, Picasso, Derain and Braque, among them Matisse's Portrait of Madame Matisse (The Green Line) of 1905.¹ Its print room keeps more than 240,000 works on paper, begun with prints Albrecht Dürer gave King Christian II in 1521.¹ For the Danish Golden Age of painting, with Eckersberg and Købke, its collection is unrivalled.¹

The story

The collection began in the art chamber of the Danish kings; around 1750 Frederick V bought Italian, Dutch, Flemish and German paintings on the advice of its keeper, Gerhard Morell.¹ The royal picture gallery hung in Christiansborg Palace until the fire of 1884, and the present building by Vilhelm Dahlerup and G. E. W. Møller opened in 1896.¹ Johannes Rump gave his French modernist paintings in 1928, and an extension by C. F. Møller's architects, joined to the old building by a glass sculpture street, opened in 1998.¹

What to know it by

• Portrait of Madame Matisse (The Green Line)1905Henri MatisseFrom the Rump collection
• Christ as the Suffering RedeemerAndrea MantegnaBought for the royal collection around 1750
• The Royal Collection of Graphic ArtMore than 240,000 prints and drawings
• Danish and Nordic Art 1750–1900400 works in 24 galleries, Eckersberg to Hammershøi