The Hirschsprung Collection was established by the tobacco manufacturer Heinrich Hirschsprung (1836-1908). Originally, he focused on acquiring art produced during his own lifetime. However, he later took an interest in Danish "Golden Age" painters, which enabled him eventually to build up an excellent collection of Danish art from the entire nineteenth century and extending a number of years into the twentieth. In 1902, Hirschsprung decided to donate his collection to the Danish state on the condition that the Municipality of Copenhagen should provide the premises, and that the city and the state should jointly build a museum. Inside the museum building, which was built by H. B. Storck, an effort was made to recreate the atmosphere of a private home. This was acheived by means of a number of smaller rooms that encircled the three main rooms, all of which had overhead lighting. The collection of individually designed furniture and other elements from the period add to the atmosphere of a cultivated upper-class home. When opened in 1911, the museum contained the most modern collection of Danish art in Copenhagen. In the time that has passed since the museum was first opened, a number of works have been added to the collection without altering its original character. As an art collector, Heinrich Hirschsprung was influenced by the naturalistic understanding of art that was common in his day. According to this understanding, the aim of art was to facilitate an objective perception of reality. He viewed the Danish "Golden Age" in the same light, but also managed to follow the transition to symbolism in the 1890s. Early on he saw the artistic value in the otherwise unnoticed studies. The Hirschsprung Collection is set in beautiful surroundings in the Østre Anlæg park in the heart of Copenhagen. Central works of the Danish "Golden Age" include paintings by Eckersberg, Købke, Bendz, Lundbye and others. The Skagen painters are represented in the museum''s many major works by Anna and Michael Ancher and, not least, the large collection of works by P. S. Krøyer. Other radical artistic currents of the 1890s are richly illuminated in works by painters such as Philipsen, Zahrtmann and Hammershøi, as well as the Danish symbolists and the Fyn School of painting.