The Danish Fate of Two German Collections Pieces of the Baron von Häckel and C. L. von Hagedorn Collections Rediscovered

Abstract

Abstract The article aims to cast new light on two important collections of paintings in eighteenth-century Germany and how they ended up (complete or in part) in Danish ownership. The fate of the Hagedorn collection is well studied, yet extremely few pieces of the collection have so far been identified in modern collections. Two such paintings – both of them among Hagedorn’s favorite pictures – are published here. The 1763 sale of the collection formed by Baron von Häckel is equally well known, though it has escaped everyone’s attention that a further 75 paintings were separated from the rest and presented to the Danish king. About half of these pictures can still be found in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen.