Louisiana Museum of Modern Art: The Best Museum You Haven’t Heard Of

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art sits on the Oresund coast 35 km north of Copenhagen in the small town of Humlebaek. It is not in Louisiana. The name comes from the three successive owners of the 18th-century country house that preceded the museum, all of whom were named Louise. The museum opened in 1958, expanded several times since, and is now consistently ranked among the best small museums in the world. If you’re in Copenhagen for more than two days, getting here should be on the list.

The building itself is the first thing to understand. The original architects Jørgen Bo and Vilhelm Wohlert designed the galleries as a series of low pavilions connected by glass corridors, all set in a sloping garden that ends at the sea. You can stand in multiple galleries and see the Oresund Sound through the windows, with Sweden visible on clear days 10 km across the water. The architecture integrates the collection with the landscape in a way that almost no other museum has managed to replicate.

The Collection

Louisiana’s permanent collection spans from the 1950s to the present, with particular strengths in Danish and international post-war art. The holdings include major works by Giacometti (the largest collection of his work in Scandinavia), Henry Moore, Jean Arp, and Asger Jorn, the Danish COBRA group artist whose work is underrepresented in most international collections.

The outdoor sculpture park running down to the sea has around 60 works installed permanently in the landscape. Alexander Calder mobiles, Warhol screenprints, a Max Ernst sculpture, and a Jean Dubuffet figure populate the lawns and woodland. The relationship between the sculpture and the natural setting is very different from the formal installations of most sculpture gardens; pieces emerge from the landscape rather than sitting on pedestals against it.

The temporary programme is ambitious and consistently attracts major shows. Louisiana has produced retrospectives of artists including Frank Stella, Olafur Eliasson, and Yayoi Kusama that have later toured internationally. Check the schedule at louisiana.dk before planning: a strong temporary show significantly enhances the visit.

Getting There

By train from Copenhagen Central Station, take any regional train toward Helsingor (Elsinore) and get off at Humlebaek station. The journey takes about 35 minutes and costs around 72 DKK from the Copenhagen city zone. From Humlebaek station, the museum is a 10-minute signposted walk through a residential neighbourhood.

By car, the drive from Copenhagen city centre takes about 45 minutes on the E47 motorway, 35 minutes outside rush hour. Parking at the museum is free.

Visiting Practically

Louisiana is open Tuesday through Friday 11:00-22:00, Saturday and Sunday 11:00-18:00, closed Mondays. The extended Tuesday-Friday evening hours are worth knowing: the museum is significantly less crowded after 17:00 on weekdays, and the gardens at dusk in summer are genuinely beautiful.

Adult entry is 175 DKK (approximately 25 euros). Children under 18 enter free. The museum-card holders (from the combined Copenhagen Card or the Louisiana annual membership) enter free. Annual membership at approximately 595 DKK pays for itself in three visits.

The café-restaurant on site has a terrace facing the sea and serves good open-face sandwiches (smørrebrød), soups, and cakes using Danish ingredients. Prices are museum-café level (75-130 DKK for lunch) but the quality is above average and the view is exceptional. Book ahead for Saturday lunch in summer: the terrace fills completely. Alternatively, bring a picnic and use the garden benches. Both are excellent options.

Combining with Kronborg Castle

Kronborg Castle (Hamlet’s castle) is in Helsingor, 7 km further north on the same train line. The castle is a genuine 16th-century Renaissance structure, the setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and worth 2 hours. Entry 115 DKK. The combined day trip - Louisiana in the morning, lunch, Kronborg in the afternoon - makes an excellent full day from Copenhagen.

The Louisiana-Kronborg combination is best done from June through August when both sites have full opening hours. In winter, the train journey along the coast is atmospheric and the museum is never crowded, but Kronborg’s exterior is more impressive than its winter-lit interior.

What to Look For

In the permanent collection, don’t miss the Giacometti gallery - a dedicated room with standing and walking figures installed in a way that makes clear what Giacometti was after that photographs never quite do. The COBRA collection (Asger Jorn, Karel Appel, Pierre Alechinsky) in the original pavilion section is important and visually vivid. The international section with works by Francis Bacon, Dubuffet, and Roy Lichtenstein is strong.

In the sculpture garden, Alberto Giacometti’s Walking Man is the centrepiece, but Max Ernst’s Capricorn (a fantastical composite figure on a throne) near the sea terrace is worth finding specifically.

The museum shop is one of the better museum shops in Scandinavia: good design books, quality prints, Danish ceramics.