One hundred years ago an exhibition took place which is now being revisited. When the Museum building opened its doors back in 1915, the Funen artists curated their own work, as the Museum had been conceived and built solely to show their ‘home-grown’ art. Now the same show is revisited for posterity. As a mark of respect for the Funen artists, Faaborg Museum opens its doors in 2015 by celebrating its centenary with the original salon-hang.

In 1915 gallery convention required that paintings were hung closely together and so there was space for the 366 paintings, sculptures and drawings, which had been purchased by the Museum from 1910-15. The entrepreneur Mads Rasmussen had the idea for a museum to showcase work by the Funen artists and he set up a purchasing committee composed of artists which had free rein to select work. Carl Petersen was the architect responsible for the Museum building and he designed a unique structure on an unusual site, which was 9 metres wide and 76 metres long.

The Museum featured 24 artists. The artists along with their patron had established this collection by the time of the inauguration of the Museum building. Amongst the most highly-regarded artists were Johannes Larsen, Fritz Syberg and Peter Hansen who were members of the purchasing committee, and their wives and sisters, Anna Syberg, Alhed Larsen and Christine Swane. 

The paintings were installed in the new Museum building from 12th – 17th May 1915. It is interesting that the artists curated the collection in a way that underpinned the Museum’s architectural concept of creating an experience rather than an overview of the work.

Carl Petersen’s building is elongated and the internal space follows a very particular plan. The architect chose a design, which steered visitors away from perceiving an overview of the building’s layout. Thus he arranged corridors leading to different areas along the outer sides of the building and made these corridors narrow and curved.

Gallery 3 contained Anna Syberg’s paintings and it is the only space, which showed work by a single artist. Anna had died in 1914 while the Museum building was under construction. It was Mads Rasmussen’s express wish that one of the Museum’s narrow galleries ‘should be filled solely with Anna Syberg’s paintings as a fitting tribute.’ Mads Rasmussen had held her in high esteem both as an artist and as a person.

Read more about Retro 1915 (in danish).