Skagens Museum holds the definitive collection of the Skagen Painters — the loose colony of Danish and Scandinavian artists who converged here from the 1870s onwards, drawn by the extraordinary northern light and by each other. The key figures are P.S. Krøyer, Michael and Anna Ancher, and Holger Drachmann.
The paintings are remarkable for their luminosity and their ordinariness — beach scenes, kitchen interiors, fishermen at work. The museum does a good job of explaining the social world behind the paintings: who was sleeping with whom, who was feuding, how the colony worked and eventually dissolved. Set aside two hours if you want to do it properly.