Colossal sculptures

Rudolph Tegner is literally a colossal artist. Born in 1873 he studied at the Danish Royal Academy of Art and became something of a rebel against the art establishment. He also married a very rich wife so he did not need to pay much attention to what other people thought. He became a sculptor and there is a museum which he & his wife built in 1938 dedicated to his own works, in the middle of a vast and natural heathland on the north coast of Denmark.

Inside the brutalist concrete building are literally hundreds of truly massive plaster models that he made. Some of these were cast in bronze and are dotted about the landscape outside.

He seems to have been inspired by a wide range of subjects – Greek mythology, Scandinavian mythology, and sentimental views about the lives and role of men and women. The collection is jaw-dropping. Nothing stopped him.

Some of the work is hilarious. For example there is a rider seated on a horse and brandishing a hammer and chisel. It is called The Sculptor. This monument is about 20 feet tall, seems to be something of a self-portrait.

He was a very accomplished anatomist and in some ways the statues are very pleasing. They are certainly eye-catching. But something about them is also rather creepy – verging on the fascistic, highly idealised. It is notable that the genitalia. The male nudes are perfectly formed but on the small side.

He died in 1950. The museum - near Dronningmølle - is definitely worth a visit. The website is rudolphtegner.dk