Art at the castle

H. E. Bernstorff was a man of exquisite taste and a sense of quality. For this reason, he had Bernstorff Palace decorated by the most talented artists of the time.

Portrait paintings by artists such as Peder Als, Jens Juel and (possibly) Louis Tocqué hung on the walls of the representative salons on the ground floor of the castle, while the empty spaces above the doors were filled with paintings by Swedish-born painter Johan Edvard Mandelberg. Mandelberg's paintings were incorporated into the paneling of the rooms and thus functioned as door pieces, i.e. decorative individual elements in line with wallpaper, fireplace mirrors, etc.

In the 18th and 20th centuries, the nail-fixed nature of the door pieces protected them from changing fashions and the personal taste preferences of changing owners. This is why Mandelberg's paintings are today the only works of art preserved from the time of the castle's construction (1765).

The seventeen door pieces are distributed across five of the castle's rooms. The door pieces in the rooms along the garden side of the castle present the viewer with a number of topographical scenes from Copenhagen and the surrounding area, including the area around Bernstorff Castle and Gentofte Church.

From a cultural-historical point of view, the door pieces in the oval garden salon are the most interesting. They show the view of Copenhagen at a time when the city limits still ran along the capital's steep ramparts. Another of the garden salon's prospects gives the viewer an amusing insight into the bustling shipping traffic in Copenhagen Harbor with the winding spire of the Church of Our Savior in the background.

In the main dining room, the door pieces are not, as in the rest of the castle, of a topographical nature. Instead, they are symbolic representations of the pleasures of the table. The six doors of the hall form a gallery of beautiful women, each offering an abundance of fruits and vegetables. The semi-erotic content of the motifs is reminiscent of Mandelberg's French model, Francois Boucher, whose "galante skilderies" enjoyed great popularity in high aristocratic circles in the mid-18th century.

Mandelberg's paintings continue to add a special mood and atmosphere to the castle's salons, which guests and staff enjoy to this day.

 - Christian Claudio Apostoli, art historian