Øregård Museum is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

located in

Hellerup Hellerup () is a very affluent district of Gentofte Municipality in the suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. The most urban part of the district is centred on Strandvejen and is bordered by Østerbro to the south and the Øresund to the east. It compr ...

in the northern outskirts of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. It is owned by Gentofte Municipality and holds a topographic collection of pictures from Copenhagen and the area north of the city. It also hosts special exhibitions. The building is a former country house built by merchant and planter Johannes Søbøtker, who was active in the

triangular trade Triangular trade or triangle trade is trade between three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. It has been used to offset ...

and the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

in the Danish West Indies.

History and architecture

Øregård is a former country house built by Danish merchant, planter and shipping agent Johannes Søbøtker, who was a partner in one of Denmark's largest trading companies and made a fortune in slave plantations, shipping and the

between Denmark, the

Danish Gold Coast The Danish Gold Coast ( or ''Dansk Guinea'') comprised the colonies that Denmark–Norway controlled in Africa as a part of the Gold Coast (region), Gold Coast (roughly present-day southeast Ghana), which is on the Gulf of Guinea. It was coloni ...

and the Danish West Indies. Like many of his contemporaries in trade and shipping, Søbøtker became a very wealthy member of an emerging

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...

which was becoming a major force in the 19th century and was acquiring the habits that had previously been reserved for the aristocracy. Over recent decades, it had become common for people to build stately summer residences north of the city while spending winters in town mansions in Copenhagen. In 1806, Søbøtker acquired a farm, ''Øregaard'', in

and commissioned the French architect Joseph-Jacques Ramée to build a suitable country house on the property. Ramée was at that time working out of

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

but designed a number of similar houses in the same area for other wealthy families, including Sophienholm for Constantin Brun and Hellerupgård. The resulting building was a simple, white-washed Neoclassical building, typical of Ramée's work around that time. He also designed the surrounding park which was laid out in English style as a Romantic

landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (, , , , ), is a style of "Landscape architecture, landscape" garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, r ...

with an artificial lake and grotto. Søbøtker maintained an extravagant lifestyle and in the same time the meagre times which followed the English Wars and the national bankruptcy in 1813 hit his business enterprises hard. In 1821 he had to sell Øregård, and moved to the Danish West Indies where he settled on his estate on

Saint Croix Saint Croix ( ; ; ; ; Danish language, Danish and ; ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent Districts and sub-districts of the United States Virgin Islands, district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an Unin ...

and later became governor of Saint John and Saint Thomas. Øregård came under new ownership and was converted into a museum. It was ultimately acquired by Gentofte Municipality in 1917 and converted into a museum. The park was carefully renovated by Gudmund Nyeland Brandt, municipal gardener and later parks director in Gentofte from 1914 to 1841, and was converted into a public park.

Collections and exhibitions

Øregård Museum holds a large topographic collection of around 3,000 pictures—oil paintings, watercolours, engravings and drawings—which depict Copenhagen and the area of the city. The collection covers the period from 1750 to 1930 and contains works by both famous and not-so-famous artists. A large part of the collection came from the private collection of Jacob Hegel (1851–1918). He was managing director of Gyldendal, Denmark's largest publishing house, and a passionate art collector. After his death, his widow, Julie Hoel, bequeathed most of the collection to Gentofte Municipality. They moved it to Øregård which opened to the public in 1921. The museum also hosts two to three special exhibitions a year and arranges a variety of events. The special exhibitions cover both older and more modern art. There is a special tradition for presenting retrospective exhibitions with artists who were underrated, or experienced adversity, in their own day. Examples have been Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann, Bertha Wegmann, Marie Krøyer, Hugo Larsen, Paul Fischer and Vilhelm Hammershøi. Other exhibitions relate to the history of the building, including the Danish West Indies, or to the surrounding area.

List of owners

* 1806-1821: Johannes Søbøtker * 1821-1833: Johan Jørgen Hunæus * 1833-1843: Joseph Hambro * 1843-1873: Andreas Nicolai Hansen * 1873-1893: Alfred Hansen * 1893-1917: Detlef Ohlsen * 1917: Gentofte Municipality

References

External links

Official website

Source

Source
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oregard Museum Art museums and galleries in Copenhagen Buildings and structures associated with the Grut Hansen family Houses completed in 1808 Listed houses in Copenhagen Houses in Gentofte Municipality Joseph-Jacques Ramée buildings Listed buildings and structures in Gentofte Municipality Museums in the Capital Region of Denmark 1800s architecture in Denmark

History and architecture

Collections and exhibitions

List of owners

See also

References

External links