Bjørn Nørgaard’s sketches for the Queen’s tapestries

Take a visual journey through Danish history with the exhibition of visual artist Bjørn Nørgaard’s in 17 colorful and sensational 1: 1 sketches for the Queen’s tapestries at Christiansborg Palace. Nørgaard’s work visualises 1000 years of Danish history in vivid colours and descriptive tableaus. The queen received the tapestries as a gift from the Danish business community for her 50th birthday in 1990.

The story
In 2001, KØS acquired visual artist Bjørn Nørgaard’s 1:1 cartons for the Queen’s tapestries, which can be experienced in the Tapestry Hall on the 3rd floor of the museum. With an enormous wealth of detail and a vivid color palette, Bjørn Nørgaard has depicted 1,000 years of Danish history in the form of 17 tapestries that stretches from the age of the Vikings through the Middle Ages and the Reformation through the dictatorship and World War II to our time and the future. Through a multitude of events, people and symbols, Bjørn Nørgaard presents his view of the course of history, where Danish history intertwines with world history, religious history and the history of art and culture. Meet a diverse gallery of people who have all left their distinct mark on history – from Jeanne D’Arc and Niels Bohr to John F. Kennedy and Karen Blixen.

An artistic tour de force
The tapestries, produced at the French tapestry factory Manufactures nationales des Gobelins et de Beauvais in Paris based on Bjørn Nørgaard’s cartons, were a gift from the Danish business community to Queen Margrethe on the occasion of her 50th birthday in 1990. They were 10 years in the making and was created with the help of 60 weavers who painstakingly contributed to the extensive work. The tapestries were inaugurated on the Queen’s 60th birthday in 2000 in Riddersalen, which is part of the Royal exhibition rooms at Christiansborg.