Please note! The exhibition is temporarily closed due to building maintenance.

The Small Salon displays a small thematic exhibition entitled Paul Gauguin and the Danish Connection that casts the spotlight on the French artist Paul Gauguin’s residence in Copenhagen (November 1884 – May 1885). The thematic exhibition presents 13 works by Gauguin from the museum’s collection and tells the story of the artist’s wife, Mette Gauguin (née Gad) – a businesswoman with a knack for selling his work and organising his exhibitions.

Newly acquired paintings
The focal point of the exhibition is two newly acquired works by Gauguin: Snow in Copenhagen (1884) and Sleeping Woman. Portrait of Madame Mette Sophie Gauguin (end of the 1870s).

The painting Snow in Copenhagen dates from the period, during which the Gauguin family lived in a ground-floor flat at 105, Gl. Kongevej in Copenhagen. The motif is from the residential/park neighbourhoods of Frederiksberg, and it may be a view from one of the windows of the yards behind the building. The work is probably one of the first landscapes he painted in Copenhagen.

The drawing Sleeping Woman. Portrait of Madame Mette Sophie Gauguin is a sensitive portrait of the artist’s wife, Mette Gauguin. Paul Gauguin painted and drew his wife on several occasions, and the work represents a more intimate, personal aspect of his oeuvre.

Even though this motif shows Mette Gauguin at rest, she was an enterprising, strong woman, one of whose achievements was to ensure that several of her husband’s works remained in Denmark. However, since then, history has forgotten her, and she has been labelled erroneously as a petty bourgeois woman with no understanding of, or interest in her husband’s art and career. This drawing now tells the story of a woman who made a name for herself during her lifetime and played a major role in her husband’s artistic achievements.

The Small Salon
In the future, The Small Salon will provide the setting for small, temporary exhibitions of French art. In this exhibition space, visitors can gain insight into the museum’s work on French art – one of the Glyptotek’s main fields of interest.

The Small Salon is located in exhibition hall 32.

The painting Snow in Copenhagen was acquired with funding from Augustinus Fonden, Ny Carlsbergfondet and Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond.