COPENHAGEN, DENMARK.- Edvard Munch, Vilhelm Hammershøi, August Strindberg, Christen Købke, and Akseli Gallen-Kallela together in the most comprehensive exhibition of Nordic landscape painting ever staged. Bringing together a total of 106 works, the exhibition "A Mirror of Nature. Nordic Landscape Paintings 1840-1910" shows only the very best of landscapes - including important highlights from other Nordic collections that have never before been on display in Denmark and are unlikely to ever reach our shores again. From 6 October 2007 - 20 January 2008 at Statens Museum for Kunst.

It is everywhere around us. Landscape. An ubiquitous backdrop which moves our emotions - if we do not take it for granted, that is. At one and the same time, it is universal and deeply personal in scope. For what is inherently sealed in the outer, physical world, and what do we add in terms of emotions and intentions when we record and reproduce nature? This autumn's major exhibition, A Mirror of Nature. Nordic Landscape Painting 1840-1910, at Statens Museum for Kunst focuses on internal and external landscapes within Nordic art.

A unique exhibition - The first of its kind, the exhibition brings together a string of excellent landscapes by eminent artists such as J.C. Dahl, Christen Købke, J.Th. Lundbye, Thomas Fearnley, Peder Balke, Carl Larsson, Prins Eugen, Anders Zorn, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, August Strindberg, L.A. Ring, Vilhelm Hammershøi, J.F. Willumsen, and Edvard Munch. Thus, the display offers a unique opportunity to experience the very best of Nordic landscape painting under one roof. The Nordic national galleries involved in the event all contribute important highlights from their own collections, thereby gracing Statens Museum for Kunst with truly exceptional loans.

From Romanticism to Symbolism - The exhibition describes an era in art history where the perception of landscapes underwent a shift. From begin regarded as an inferior vein of painting, it rapidly became the most appreciated genre of all. In the Nordic countries in particular, the breakthrough of landscape painting in the mid-19th century represented a wish to generate distinct national imagery anchored in the particular topography of each country. The tension between the national and the international, between a search for a specific national identity and artistic idiom, and an ever-growing openness to inspiration from the rest of Europe constitutes a pivotal point in the exhibition.

The 106 works are presented in accordance with both thematic and chronological principles. It describes the developments within Nordic painting from the Romantic era to the advent of Symbolism, and at the same time it showcases the decisive shifts in how art uses nature. From the patriotic, grand, and Romantic landscapes of the 1840s to the Impressionists records of specific moments experienced in the open air and onwards to the introspective landscapes of the souls created by the Symbolists in the decades surround the year 1900.

Pan-Nordic collaboration - The exhibition represents a large-scale, pan-Nordic collaboration between Statens Museum for Kunst and the national galleries in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Oslo, where it has already been on display. Early September saw the end of the exhibition's run at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and now Statens Museum for Kunst marks the finale of the travelling exhibition. The display has garnered excellent reviews on its travels, e.g. in the acclaimed art journal The Burlington Magazine, where the art historian John House said, "Viewers of the exhibition will find themselves thrillingly infused by the spell of nature, or rather by many and diverse spells, and will find their eyes opened to many worlds as landscapes."

Book - The exhibition is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated 312- page book. Essays contributed by Leena Ahtola-Moorhouse, Philip Conisbee, Janne Gallen-Kallela-Sirén, Torsten Gunnarsson, Peter Nørgaard Larsen, Magne Malmanger, Klaus P. Mortensen, and Annika Waenerberg. Main editors: Statens Museum for Kunst. Price: DKK 299. Danish and English versions available from the museum bookshop. ISBN: 87 90096 63 9.