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J. C. Jacobsen and
Carlsberg
The story of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
cannot be told without relating the story of the Jacobsen Family,
and their story cannot be told without mention of the Carlsberg
Brewery. The Carlsberg Brewery was founded in 1847 by J.C. Jacobsen
(1811-1887) and became an important and extremely profitable
business thanks to new industrial processes in the making of
beer.
Personal wealth and public
philanthropy
The impressive profits allowed J. C.
Jacobsen to finance the rebuilding of the Frederiksborg Castle in
Hillerød north of Copenhagen after it was almost totally destroyed
by fire in 1859. The castle was subsequently turned into a museum
of national history. Thus, J. C. Jacobsen introduced the Jacobsen
family’s idea of using personal wealth for public
philanthropy.
Conflict between father and
son
However, his reason for doing so was not merely benevolent charity,
but an outcome of a bitter conflict with his only son, Carl
Jacobsen (1842-1914). Instead of letting Carl be the heir of his
fortune, he created the Carlsberg Foundation in 1876 and made it
his principle heir. The Foundation was to promote an awareness of
history and an appreciation of beauty.
Ny Carlsberg
In 1882 Carl Jacobsen founded and achieved economic independence
with his own brewery, the Ny Carlsberg Brewery. The rivalry between
father and son was not limited to brewing beer, but was extended to
their respective acts of philanthropy. While J. C. Jacobsen
believed in the educational importance of history, Carl believed in
the refining capacities of art.
Carl Jacobsen´s collection
of art
Carl Jacobsen collected works of art, first
by contemporary Danish sculptors who followed in the footsteps of
the renowned Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), then
painters of the Danish Golden Age, French Salon sculptors, and
finally also works of ancient art. In 1882, he opened his home to
visitors, making his private collection public.
The necessity of a
museum
With the continued expansion of his
collection, Carl Jacobsen and his Scottish wife Ottilia (1854-1904)
decided to donate the more contemporary part of their collection to
the public in a deed of gift. It was signed on March 8th 1888, the
day after the birth of their seventh child, Thorvald. For this
collection, a museum was required, and thus the idea of the Ny
Carlsberg Glyptotek was born.
The brink of
ruin
The first section of the museum, built by the architect Vilhelm
Dahlerup, opened in 1897.
In 1899, a new deed of gift bequeathed the collection of ancient
art to the museum, which was then in need of an enlargement.
However, Carl Jacobsen’s extensive purchases of art had
brought his brewery to the brink of ruin.
The Ny Carlsberg
Foundation
In 1902, Carl Jacobsen donated the Ny
Carlsberg Brewery to his father’s foundation, on the
condition that a Ny Carlsberg Foundation was created. This
agreement allowed Carl Jacobsen to loan money from the Carlsberg
Foundation to finance the extension of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek,
which was inaugurated in 1906.
The son, Helge
Jacobsen
Carl Jacobsen’s son, Helge (1882-1946), was to continue the
Jacobsen family tradition. When the first-born son Alf died at the
age of ten, he became the eldest child, and the heir to the
Carlsberg line. Helge, like his father, was fond of art, and would
probably have pursued studies in art history if his role had been a
different one.
In the footsteps of his
father
As his father before him, he was moulded as a
brewer and a businessman, and received a strict upbringing away
from home, first in Birkerød north of Copenhagen, then in England
to study modern brewing techniques.
Director of the
Glyptotek
Again in the footsteps of his father, he
found his bride in Edinburgh: Josephine, the daughter of a Scottish
banker. Following Carl Jacobsen’s death in 1914, Helge became
director and chairman of the Glyptotek, the latter of which he
remained until his death in 1946.
An interest in
painting
While his father had had a predilection for
sculpture, Helge’s heart was set on Impressionist and
Post-Impressionist painting. He started transforming the
Glyptotek’s collections, purging them of plaster casts and
replicas, switching the focus from Salon sculpture to Modernist
painting.
Helge Jacobsen´s collection
of art
In 1914, he was one of the main organisers of an exhibition of
French Modernist art from Manet to Matisse at Statens Museum for
Kunst (The Danish National Gallery). Because of the outbreak of
World War I, the works remained for an extended period of time in
Copenhagen, allowing for several of them to be purchased by Danish
collectors, and among them naturally Helge Jacobsen
himself.
In 1927, two years after he had
resided as director of the museum, he bequeathed his extensive
private collection of French nineteenth- and twentieth-century art
to the Glyptotek, thereby continuing the Jacobsen family
tradition.
The benefactors of the
Glyptotek
To this day, the Carlsberg Foundation and the Ny Carlsberg
Foundation remain the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek’s most important
benefactors. Thanks to the Jacobsen family, their funds not only
benefit the museum they naturally are affiliated with, but art and
culture in all of Denmark.
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