The Storm P. Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, is a biographical museum dedicated to the life and oeuvre of Danish

humor Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

ist

Robert Storm Petersen Robert Storm Petersen (19 September 1882 – 6 March 1949) was a Danish cartoonist, writer, animator, illustrator, painter and humorist. He is known almost exclusively by his pen name Storm P. Biography He was the son of a butcher ...

, popularly known as Storm P. In addition to his

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

s, the museum also displays his paintings, both oils and watercolours, and covers other aspects of his life, time and many-sided talent, as well as his extensive collection of

smoking pipe A smoking pipe is used to inhale the smoke of a burning substance; most common is a tobacco pipe, which can also accommodate almost any other substance. Pipes are commonly made from briar, heather, corn, meerschaum, clay, cherry, glass, porcela ...

s and his studio which has been reconstructed on the first floor. The ground floor is used for special exhibitions. In connection with a renovation in 2012, the museum has broadened its profile to include

, satire and cartoons more generally. The museum is based in a former police station, part of the listed complex of buildings surrounding Frederiksberg Runddel opposite the main entrance to Frederiksberg Gardens in Frederiksberg.

History

Site history

The building was constructed in the mid-1880s as Frederiksberg's first police station. It originally stood in blank, brownish-yellow brick and featured a prominent gable at the corner. The local police force left the building in 1919 when a new police station was inaugurated at Howitzvej, just north of Frederiksberg Gardens, as part of a complex which also included

Frederiksberg Courthouse Frederiksberg Courthouse (Danish: Frederiksberg Domhus) is a courthouse in Frederiksberg, an independent municipality in Copenhagen, Denmark. The building was completed in 1921 to designs by Hack Kampmann as part of a larger complex at Howitzvej w ...

and a new fire station. In the mid-1920s, the building became home to Frederiksberg Funeral Services (''Frederiksberg Begravelsesvæsen''). The gable was removed and the walls dressed in the current yellow colour to match the other buildings at the entrance to Frederiksberg Gardens.

The museum

The Storm P Museum took over the building in 1977 but it is still owned by the state. It was refurbished in the winter of 2011/12.

Storm P. exhibition

The Storm P. exhibition is now located in the first floor and comprises his studio which has been reconstructed in one of the rooms. The museum's collection of his cartoons and other drawings comprises more than 30,000 of his works, although only a minor and changing selection is on display. The collection was digitized in connection with the 2012 renovation and it is now possible to explore it on iPads made available by the museum. Storm P.'s interest in painting began during a visit to Paris in 1906 where he was struck by the Modernist and in particular Expressionist art that he saw as well as by the art cabarets and the Bohemian life style. Many of his paintings from this period depict Parisian nightlife.

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, ''The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dr ...

, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and James Ensor were among his inspirations as a painter. Storm P.'s collection of smoking pipes consists of approximately 450 pieces. Beginning with his own, he began to request pipes from his closest friends, and these personal memorabilia were later supplemented with different smoking utensils of prominent cultural figures. His collection finally diversified into comprising clay pipes, long pipes and finally intricately carved Meerschaum pipes. The pipes are on display in the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

cabinets which Storm P. acquired for the purpose. A minor selection of the more notable pieces have been moved to showcases in connection with the expansion of the museum.

Special exhibitions

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Museums in Copenhagen Biographical museums in Denmark Cartooning museums Listed buildings and structures in Frederiksberg Municipality Museums established in 1977 1977 establishments in Denmark