Wilhelm Hansen’s Impressionist Collection that Denmark Refused to Buy

On the 14th September 1918, Wilhelm Hansen founded one of the finest collections of Impressionist painting in Europe in his summer house not far from Copenhagen. Yet, just four years later his bank went bankrupt and Hansen was about to lose all that he owned. He made an offer to the Danish state to acquire his entire collection for one million Danish krone. But the state said no…

A historical photograph of the interior of the French Gallery in Hansen’s house. Ordrupgaard.

The Beginnings

Eugéne Delacroix, Portrait of George Sand, 1838, Ordrupgaard Museum, wilhelm hansens impressionist collection
Eugéne Delacroix, Portrait of George Sand, 1838, Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Wilhelm Hansen was an insurer, a state advisor, and a great philanthropist. Since 1893, he often traveled to Paris on business, and from his letters, it is known that he loved visiting museums and art salons to admire contemporary painting, which, as his sixth sense suggested, would quickly increase in value on the art market. A year after the outbreak of the First World War, he began making plans to create a grand collection of late 19th-century French paintings.

Gustave Courbet, Roe Deer Hunting Episode (Franche-Comté), 1866, Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Being a real visionary, Wilhelm Hansen would buy up to 12 works by each of the most important French artists, such as J. A. D. Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, Camille Corot, Paul Cézanne, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, or Paul Gauguin. Often he consulted his choices with the art critic Théodore Duret, who was a friend and supporter of the Impressionist group.

Best Collection in the World

Paul Gauguin, Portrait of a Young Woman. Vaïte (Jeanne) Goupil, 1896, Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Between 1916 and 1918, Hansen kept on buying art from leading art dealers such as Ambroise Vollard or Paul Rosenberg, as well as painters’ relatives. For example, his first works by Gauguin arrived in his collection directly from the widow Mette Gauguin. Although war prevented him from returning to Paris until 1919, he continued to his purchases via various art brokers to eventually build a collection called by the Danish collector Klas Fahraeus “the best collection of Impressionists in the entire world”.

Honoré Daumier, The Wrestler, 1852, Ordrupgaard Museum, wilhelm hansen's impressionist collection
Honoré Daumier, The Wrestler, 1852, Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Wilhelm Hansen built a summer residence in Ordrupgaard, north of Copenhagen, where he designed a special gallery to place his paintings in. Initially, the public had free access to the collection every Monday. The press welcomed it with great enthusiasm.

Bankruptcy

Berthe Morisot, Young Girl on the Grass. Mlle Isabelle Lambert, 1885, Ordrupgaard Museum, wilhelm hansens impressionist collection
Berthe Morisot, Young Girl on the Grass. Mlle Isabelle Lambert, 1885, Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Yet, in 1922 his Landmandsbanken, which was one of the biggest private banks in Denmark at that time, went bankrupt. Hansen offered to seel his collection to the Danish state for a modest fee but the state refused to acquire it. Following this decision, Hansen was forced to sell out his works to private collectors, mostly foreign, in order to pay off his debts.

Another Try

Thédore Rousseau, Sunset in the Forest, 1856-58, Ordrupgaard Museum, wilhelm hansens impressionist collection
Thédore Rousseau, Sunset in the Forest, 1856-1858, Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen, Denmark.

It could have seemed an end to his great collection but Hansen didn’t give up and as soon as he regained financial stability, he began purchasing artworks and in 1925 his collection was reassembled. Yet, embittered by the lack of support from Denmark, this time he decided to keep it closed to the public. Only after his death, his wife Henny offered the mansion to the state, and this time the collection was accepted. Today, you can explore Hansen’s collection in Ordrupgaard – a gallery established in the Hansen mansion close to Copenhagen.

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