Skagens Museum

Skagens Museum, at Denmark's northern tip, holds the world's most important collection of works by the Skagen Painters — the colony of artists who settled in the fishing town of Skagen in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, drawn by its extraordinary light and picturesque coastal life. The galleries bring together masterpieces by Marie and P. S. Krøyer, Anna and Michael Ancher, Laurits Tuxen, Viggo Johansen and Holger Drachmann, alongside a regularly changing programme of special exhibitions. The museum is part of a wider cultural complex that also includes the historic Brøndums Hotel — for decades a gathering place for the painters — and Anna and Michael Ancher's House, preserved much as it was in their day. A café in the Garden House, an old building that once served as home and studio for the Anchers, rounds out the visit. Together these sites let you step directly into the everyday world that inspired one of Scandinavia's best-loved artistic movements. The museum is open daily, typically from 10:00 to 17:00, and an admission fee is charged; a combined ticket also gives access to Ancher's House. Set aside a few hours to take in both the paintings and the surrounding historic buildings, and you begin to understand why Skagen's clear northern light still draws artists and travellers today.