Why go
Start with the National Museum of Denmark for early objects such as the Gundestrup cauldron, then look for later painting at Copenhagen's art collections. The contrast helps explain how court patronage, the Reformation and the nineteenth-century interest in local scenery shaped what survives today.
The full story
The earliest material is often small enough to miss if you expect only paintings: bronze horns, worked metal and carved objects show artistic traditions long before a Danish academy existed. The Gundestrup cauldron, found in a Jutland bog and held by the National Museum, is especially useful because its intricate imagery also points beyond Denmark. Viking art survives on objects and stone monuments, while medieval churches preserve painted walls and carved fittings. The Reformation changed the market for religious art, but many church interiors remained. Court portraits and imported styles dominated for a time. From the late eighteenth century, artists increasingly trained in Denmark and turned their attention toward Danish people and landscapes. That shift leads into the Golden Age of painting and, much later, artists working in international modern styles. See an early object, a church interior and a nineteenth-century landscape to understand the changes more clearly than a single survey room can show.