The Sea

Perched as we are on a long peninsular and collection of islands between the North Sea and the Baltic, the sea has always been an integral part Denmark’s cultural identity.

This is what the iconic BRANDTS museum in Odense had i mind when they put together the huge The Sea exhibition - which is as immense as the sea itself.

This is how they describe it: Denmark has been and is still considered a sea-faring nation. The entire country borders on sea or fjords. The Vikings ventured into the world on expeditions of conquest, and later we gradually acquired a navy as well as a merchant fleet. Today Denmark builds some of the largest container ships in the world, and in certain parts of the country, sections of the population still make a living by fishing.

In The Sea we will focus on a few subordinate themes offering different tales of our relationship to the powerful sea, historically as well as from a contemporary angle. The exhibition will start off with a selection of sea battles such as C. A. Lorentzen’s dramatic painting, “The Battle of Copenhagen”, and C. W. Eckerberg’s beautiful seascapes. These will be followed by photographs by the Frenchman Gustave Le Gray, who, as early as the 1850s, took pictures of the sea breaking, as did his American colleague Thomas Joshua Cooper a hundred years later. We will also be taking a close look at how some of the Danish Skaw painters and others depicted the rough life of fishermen and examine an artist such as the Danish west coast painter, Jens Søndergaard, and his interest in the relationship between people and religion. A special part of the exhibition will be dedicated to the highly dramatic aspects of the mighty forces of nature and man’s fascination with them.

And if you’re by now feeling slightly nautical, why not peruse some of our Viking range of gifts courtesy of the Viking Ship Museum?

Featured Image: Gerhard Mantz, “Personal Risk”