| Monday: | CLOSED |
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| Tuesday: | CLOSED |
| Wednesday: | CLOSED |
| Thursday: | CLOSED |
| Friday: | 11:00 – 20:00 |
| Saturday: | 11:00 – 17:00 |
| Sunday: | 11:00 – 17:00 |
| Monday: | CLOSED |
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| Tuesday: | CLOSED |
| Wednesday: | CLOSED |
| Thursday: | CLOSED |
| Friday: | 11:00 – 20:00 |
| Saturday: | 11:00 – 17:00 |
| Sunday: | 11:00 – 17:00 |
Janus la Cour
Silence
23 August 2025 – 4 January 2026
New exhibition on Janus la Cour’s landscapes is devoted to silence
This special exhibition explores the world evoked in the art of nineteenth-century Danish painter Janus la Cour. A world of quiet, hushed landscapes where modern distractions are absent, things become clear, and repeatedly returning to the same motifs is a source of strength.
The exhibition takes a fresh look at the Danish painter Janus la Cour (1837–1909) – a painter who consistently depicted natural landscapes in a state of utter silence, devoid of people and any traces of modernity. With keen fascination and an almost scientific eye, he zooms in on selected geological details such as a stone or a rock, directing his gaze down towards the earth.
Visitors can look forward to losing themselves in Janus la Cour’s landscapes and being inspired by the artist’s insistence on hushed silence when the exhibition opens at The Nivaagaard Collection on 23 August 2025. Shown here is one of la Cour’s many scenes from the East Jutland coast, Summer Evening by the River’s Mouth at the Sea, painted in 1892 at Moesgaard. © Aarhus Municipality’s Art Collection
La Cour often created entire series of the same subject, showing scenes of unspoilt nature in various framings and different lighting, sometimes painted years apart. He repeatedly returned to the same coasts, rivers, lakes, bays and mountains on travels in Italy, Switzerland and France, or, during his later years, along the East Jutland coast near Aarhus, Denmark.
His paintings quietly insist on slipping into nature’s own state of being, inviting the viewer to partake in meditative moments of clarity. La Cour allows neither animals, people nor the frantic industrialisation of the time to intrude. No battles are fought in these vast natural scenes. A sense of peace and serenity pervades all, creating a silence that can be both beautiful and oppressive. And the scenes are devoid of interpersonal narratives.
Yet these depictions of nature are not purely idealised: heaps of seaweed are often prominent in the foreground, filling the space and suggesting putrid smells. Thus, elements of decay and transience enter the scene, disrupting the overall sense of timelessness.
The exhibition juxtaposes Janus la Cour’s works with selected paintings by the Danish painter, sculptor and trained geologist Per Kirkeby (1938–2018). Kirkeby admired la Cour and owned three of his paintings, which are also featured in the exhibition.
Janus la Cour, Helgenæs Coast with Stones, 1875. © Christoph Müller Foundation. Photo: Kilian Beutel
Per Kirkeby, Untitled (Læsø), 2006. Private Collection. © Estate of Per Kirkeby. Photo: Lucas Spörl
Janus la Cour, Seagrass and Large Stones, undated © Staatliche
Schlösser, Gärten und Kunstsammlungen Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Schwerin, donated
by Christoph Müller, Stiftung Pommersches Landesmuseum.
Photo: Kilian Beutel
About Janus la Cour and the collection
The founder of The Nivaagaard Collection, Johannes Hage (1842–1923), purchased the collection’s major masterpiece by Janus la Cour, The Castle of Chillon on Lake Geneva, in April 1876, the same year it was painted. This was a departure for Hage, who generally acquired older art rather than contemporary works. For example, his purchases included several landscape paintings by Janus la Cour’s teacher, P.C. Skovgaard (1817–1875), with whom la Cour lived for several years, and an exquisite work by la Cour’s greatest artistic role model: the French painter and central figure of classical landscape painting, Claude Lorrain (1600–1682).
Johannes Hage shared la Cour’s love of serene natural settings, making the addition of Janus la Cour’s work to the collection a good fit for Hage’s preferences: he avoided all obvious traces of modernity in art.
Janus la Cour had a penchant for long, solitary walks in search of undisturbed nature and solitude. This love of silence and nature is reflected in his art and continues to awaken a sense of longing in present-day observers.
Janus la Cour, Slottet Chillon ved Genfersøen, 1876. Nivaagaards Malerisamling.
The exhibition is created in collaboration with Museum Kunst der Westküste and curated in cooperation with the German author and art historian Florian Illies, known for books such as 1913: The Year Before the Storm and Love in a Time of Hate.
The exhibition is built around the outstanding Janus la Cour collection assembled over the past fifteen years in Berlin by art collector and patron Christoph Müller, with expert support from Simon Elson. In addition, the exhibition includes a number of loans from private collections and Danish museums.
The exhibition is supported by the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation, the Beckett Foundation, the 15. Juni Fonden, the Margrethe and Johs. F. la Cour Foundation Pindstrup, A.P. Mortensen og Hustrus Legat, and the Nikolai and Felix Foundation.
