Sofus Madsen Skulpturmuseum

Sculpture museum in the sculptor Sofus Madsen's own studio at Landås in Bergen, with about 180 works and woven tapestries by Grethe Madsen.

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About the museum

Sofus Madsen was born in Kristiania (Oslo) in 1881 but grew up in Bergen. He trained as a sculptor in Copenhagen and worked in Berlin and Paris before returning to Bergen in 1914, where he lived until his death in 1977. Madsen was a classicist artist who depicted people in heroic nudity, and he is particularly known for Merkur on the Sundt building by Torgallmenningen.

In 1917 he moved, together with his artist wife and tapestry weaver Grethe Corneliussen, into the house they had designed themselves on Kanonhaugen at Landås, which they called Stormbakken. He later built the studio there, which today is the museum's exhibition space. The studio was extended in 1959, and in 1971 another studio building was added.

Grethe and Sofus Madsen's foundation (stiftelse) was established by Sofus Madsen in 1972 and began its activities in 1979, after the estate had been settled. The foundation is run on a voluntary basis and manages and operates Bergen's only sculpture museum. The collection consists of about 180 sculptures, medallions and drawings, mostly plaster sculptures with some works in bronze and stone, as well as Grethe Madsen's pictorial tapestries. A small sculpture park has been laid out outside the house. The residential part and the grounds are owned by a private individual, while the studio parts have mainly been converted into a museum.

Highlights

Sofus Madsen's original studio from the 20th century
About 180 sculptures, medallions and drawings, mostly in plaster
Pictorial tapestries by Grethe Madsen
Small sculpture park outside the studio