J. F. WILLUMSENS „GAMLE SAMLING“: Vurderingens omskiftelighed og samlerens strategier

Resumé

From his early years until his death, the

Danish multi-talented artist, Jens Ferdinand

Willumsen (1863-1958), amassed a large

private collection of art and artifacts of all

kinds. Emulating his famous 19th century

predecessor, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Willumsen

bequeathed his collection in 1947 to the

Danish state together with a large portion

of his own substantial artistic production.

On that occasion he arranged a double

exhibition to show his own works and the

so-called “Old Collection”. The article deals

with the reception of the “Old Collection”

and the very severe critique that it met for

its supposed lack of quality. The article

describes the reactions and the subsequent

changes in attitude towards the collection.

Today the collection is recognized as one

that includes many important works of art.

The second part of the article is an attempt

to identify some of J. F. Willumsen’s reasons

for collecting: The artist collected things

which could inspire him. He tried with his

collection to create the impression of himself

as a particularly gifted “uomo universale”

who, through his artistic intuition, would find

a way to the old masters that was unknown

to the learned art historians. The “Old

Collection” was thus a means of displaying

his – not always acknowledged – genius.

Finally, its seems that the com-bination of

his own workshop-collection with an art

collection, installed together in a museum

dedicated to him alone, was a way of linking

himself with Thorvaldsen, who was during

the Golden Age of Danish painting the only

other Danish artist who had a museum of his

own, comprising both his own works and his

collection of other masterworks.