Christine Swane

May 29, 2026 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Christine Swane (1876-1960). The Nivaagaard Collection, in collaboration with the Johannes Larsen Museum and Ribe Art Museum, marks the occasion with a major special exhibition about the painter.

Christine Swane (1876–1960) is a singular figure in Danish art and at the same time a remarkably versatile artist. Rooted in close studies of nature within the circle of the Funen Painters, she nevertheless followed her own path and developed a poetic visual language. She was a painter, but also a ceramicist and craft artist. Swane was a keen observer of the world around her—the everyday sphere, the home, the city and nature—which she depicted with an exceptional sense of colour and a palette that was at once chalky and richly chromatic. At the same time, she experimented with dissolving her motifs, played with pictorial space, and often left parts of the canvas raw.

Swane was in constant motion as an artist, continually adopting new working methods. She expressed herself through painting, ceramics, sculpture and textile art, and along the way also created a major mosaic decoration for Damsøbadet in Frederiksberg. In mid-life, she had her own house built in Birkerød, where the house and garden became the focal point of her art until her death in 1960.

The exhibition Christine Swane. A Multifaceted Original seeks to present the artist’s practice in a way that allows her inquisitive nature and diverse modes of expression to fully come into their own.