Wilhelm Hansen (art collector)

Wilhelm Hansen in Ordrupgaard, unknown photographer around 1920

Wilhelm Peter Henning Hansen (born November 27, 1868 in Copenhagen ; died February 4, 1936 in Ordrup ) was a Danish insurance director, art collector and founder of the Ordrupgaard Museum .

Life

Family and professional career

Wilhelm Hansen was born in Copenhagen as the son of Niels Christian Adolph Hansen (1829–1918) and his wife Josephine Marie Sophie, née Buntzen (1842–1914). He first attended the Efterslægten Skole school and then began a career in the insurance industry. When he was around twenty he worked for the Danish branch of the English life insurance company Gresham . In 1889 he started working for the Danish insurer Søassurancen and in 1891 took over the general agency for Gresham in Denmark.

Hansen was a supporter of the planned language Volapük . He published text and dictionaries and taught the language at the Polytekniske Læreanstalt . He shared his interest in Volapük with Henny Nathalie Soelberg Jensen, whom he met in 1887 and married on October 30, 1891.

In 1896 he implemented the idea of ​​offering life insurance for all sections of the population based on the English model. To this end he founded the Danish insurance company Dansk Folkeforsikringsanstalt , which was a great success. Later he also founded the internationally oriented insurance company Mundus . The Danish insurance company Hafnia appointed him its director in 1905. He held the office until his death in 1936. In addition, Hansen was one of the founders of the French insurance company La Populaire in 1919 . He was also chairman of the Danish Life Insurance Association and sat on the boards of several insurance companies, including Dana and Danske Phoenix . For his services in insurance he was made Knight of the Dannebrogorden in 1909 and received the honorary title of Councilor of State (Etatsråd) in 1912 .

Ordrupgaard and the Hansen Art Collection

Wilhelm Hansen's interest in art was aroused by his school friend Peter Hansen , who later became a painter himself and belonged to the artist group Fynboerne . Through him he met the painter Viggo Johansen and the designer Thorvald Bindesbøll , who from then on belonged to the circle of friends of Wilhelm and Henny Hansen. At the age of 24 Wilhelm Hansen acquired his first painting, a motif with cows in a landscape by the Danish painter Johan Thomas Lundbye . This was soon followed by other works by painters from the Golden Age in Denmark such as Christen Købke and Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg . There were also works from the second half of the 19th century by artists such as Lauritz Andersen Ring and Vilhelm Hammershøi .

The Danish art historian Karl Madsen aroused Wilhelm Hansen's interest in painting by the French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists . Hansen stayed repeatedly on business in Paris and was partly advised there by the art critic Théodore Duret on the purchase of works of art. Hansen acquired paintings by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres , Eugène Delacroix , Camille Corot , Charles-François Daubigny , Honoré Daumier , Théodore Rousseau , Eugène Boudin , Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet , Edgar Degas , Berthe Morisot from dealers such as Alphonse Kann and Ambroise Vollard , Pierre-Auguste Renoir Claude Monet , Alfred Sisley , Camille Pissarro , Paul Gauguin , Odilon Redon , Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse . Hansen also bought works at auctions, for example at Edgar Degas' estate auction in 1918.

From 1916 to 1918 Wilhelm and Henny Hansen had the Ordrupgaard country house built north of Copenhagen on the edge of the Jægersborg Dyrehave hunting area . The summer house, built according to plans by the architect Gotfred Tvede , was originally intended to be reserved for the family. Even before construction began, the Hansen couple decided to move the rapidly growing art collection into an adjoining gallery wing. Ordrupgaard was inaugurated with a big festival on September 14, 1918. Hansen had the desire to bring French art closer to the Danish public. To this end, he opened Ordrupgaard to the public on individual days.

Furthermore, Hansen founded the Foreningen Fransk Kunst ( Association of French Art ), of which he was chairman and driving force. He organized various art exhibitions, including a show on Camille Corot in 1918, in 1920 he presented works by Edgar Degas and in 1922 by Édouard Manet. He also showed exhibitions of French art in Oslo and Stockholm.

Together with the Danish collector Herman Heilbuth and the Winkel & Magnussen gallery from Copenhagen, Hansen formed a consortium that bought large-scale works of art on credit in France. This included, for example, part of the collection of the French art collector Georges Viau . The aim was to bring these works to Scandinavia and to pass them on to collectors there. When the bank Den Danske Landmandsbank declared bankruptcy in 1922 , Hansen was forced to service loans in a short period of time. As a result, he lost a considerable fortune and was forced to sell 76 major works of his art collection. Initially, he had granted the Danish state a right of first refusal, but this was refused. The private Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen eventually acquired some works , including paintings by Vincent van Gogh , Edgar Degas, Honoré Daumier, Eugène Deacroix, Camille Corot, Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec . The majority of the works, however, went abroad, where the Swiss Oskar Reinhart , the Japanese Matsukata Kōjirō and the American Albert C. Barnes were among the buyers. After the sale, Hansen no longer opened Ordrupgaard to the public and only granted individuals access to the remaining collection upon request.

After Hansen had recovered economically, he started collecting again. Until 1933 he bought other important works by French and Danish artists. He also continued to organize exhibitions, such as 1928 French art of the 19th century in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek and sculptures by Auguste Rodin in Charlottenborg Palace .

Wilhelm Hansen died in 1936 as a result of a traffic accident. His grave is in the Copenhagen cemetery Vestre Kirkegård . He left no will, so his property initially passed to his wife. Henny Hansen lived until 1951 and bequeathed the art collection and the Ordrupgaard estate to the Danish state, combined with the obligation to make the property accessible to the public. Ordrupgaard has been open to the public as a state museum since 1953.

Works from the Hansen Collection in Ordrupgaard

• 

  Lauritz Andersen Ring:
  Lundbyes bænk ved Arresø

• 

  Camille Pissarro:
  Flowering plum tree

• 

  Édouard Manet:
  Portrait of Emmanuel Chabrier

• 

  Edgar Degas:
  Three dancers

• 

  Berthe Morisot:
  The red jacket

• 

  Pierre-Auguste Renoir:
  Madame Iscovesco

• 

  Paul Gauguin:
  Adam and Eve

• 

  Paul Cezanne:
  Bathers

literature

• Christofer Conrad, Andreas Henning, Guido Messling: Renoir, Gauguin, Degas…, Treasures of the Ordrupgaard Collection, Copenhagen . Hatje Cantz Verlag 2003 ISBN 3-7757-1382-4
• Mikael Wivel : Ordrupgaard, Selected works . Ordrupgaard 1993 ISBN 87-88692-09-4
• Haavard Rostrup: Histoire du Musée d'Ordrupgaard, 1918–1978: D'aprés des documents inédits . Gyldendal 1981 ISBN 87-981162-0-7
• Thomas Lederballe, Rebecca Rabinow: The Age of Impressionism. European Paintings from Ordrupgaard . Ordrupgaard 2002 ISBN 87-88692-27-2

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Hansen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files