PLANT FEVER. 

With the exhibition Plant Fever, Ordrupgaard reveals how, during the nineteenth century, the then highly exotic foreign plants found their way into Danish homes. A veritable ‘plant fever’ struck, and in a short period of time, potted plants became a natural part of everyday life. Potted plants are a common motif in nineteenth-century paintings. But in Danish art history, the underlying stories about their global origins have been overlooked. As part of the thriving plant trade that gathered momentum in the seventeenth century, many of these plants travelled great distances and this sometimes served to transform the fauna and flora of several continents. While several of these plants are actually endangered species, in their original biotopes, they are flourishing in the living rooms around Europe. And nowhere more so than in Denmark, perhaps – the country with the greatest number of potted plants per inhabitant. The potted plants bring Europe’s colonial history into the living room while, at the same time, the plants form a bond with us, their caretakers, which may unlock a relationship with nature that is more tender, more diverse, and more historically aware.

The exhibition is the result of a collaboration with the Hirschsprung Collection, and for the first time ever, two parallel exhibitions are being staged simultaneously at these two museums.