The latest from Exhibition on Screen, this is a glorious, fascinating film, beautifully photographed, excellently researched and if you like the French Impressionists ,will delight and enthral.
Based on the major exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of Arts in 2020, directed by David Bickerstaff, this film looks at the life of Wilhelm and Henny Hansen and their incredible collection of French Impressionist paintings now of the Ordrupgaard Collection (the huge estate that was their home, now a museum). The collection includes assorted major works by artists such as Cezanne, Corot ,Courbet, Degas, Gonzales, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissaro and Sisley. We also see the beautiful interior of the Ordrupgaard mansion and the fragrant gardens (the gardens being more Henny’s work).
There was a period of time where the Impressionists were disregarded – major artists now regarded as important, such as Degas, Manet, Monet and Renoir became virtually penniless as they were ridiculed and assailed. Then a seismic shift in appreciation occurred and collectors such as Hansen materialised and snapped up their works.
Between 1916 and 1918 Hansen acquired no fewer than 156 Impressionist paintings, and it’s the majority of this collection that is detailed in THE DANISH COLLECTOR DELACROIX TO GAUGIN.
Hansen, who made his money in life insurance, is an example of the amateur but thoroughly knowledgeable, abundantly wealthy but not titled new sort of collector that became prominent at the time. What distinguishes him from other collectors was that he wanted the works for his personal collection at home.
For roughly the first half hour or so, the viewer enjoys Impressionist bliss. There are interviews with the curators and experts in London, Paris and Denmark. The interviews – one is the curator of the Royal Academy exhibition, another is the director of Ordrupgaard (Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark) whose comments in Danish are subtitled – allocate a lot of time putting things in context, detailing the salon system, the dominance of certain dealers, and the evolution of the corporate collector. But then the film meanders into examining the wider history of collecting, with mentions of Tutenkhamun, the ancient Greeks and Romans, the Medicis, the Tudors, ,the Hapsburgs and others, and becomes a bit lost and confusing .
And there are also unanswered questions. How, for example, did the Hansens cope in 1922 when the bank Wilhelm had borrowed from crashed and he was forced to sell half of his collection? The bank crash also created ripples through Danish society. At the time the state refused to buy Wilhelm’s works, so he was required to sell outside of Denmark. Yet by 1923 he was yet again buying new works … a puzzle.
It is also interesting to consider Wilhelm’s approach when deciding to buy particular artist’s works. There are a few, but not many works by female artists (eg Berthe Morisot) – in some ways revolutionary for the era – and what about Vincent van Gogh? The collection included twelve works by Paul Gaugin (eight after the 1922 crash) but only one Van Gogh.
The estate and collection were eventually donated to the Danish state during the 1950’s. For those of us on the other side of the globe this is a wonderful chance to see this major collection.
Exhibition on Screen’s THE DANISH COLLECTOR DELACROIX TO GAUGIN screens at selected cinemas with various dates from 3 December 2021
Running time 82 mins (approx)
Directed by David Bickerstaff
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