Mary from the start: John Korner

24 February 2010

In close collaboration with Danish court Danish national TV DR made a documentary about the crown prince couple's new home: one of the four Amalienborg palaces that was being extensively renovated.

The palace destined for Frederik & his family is Frederik VIIIs Palae or Brockdorff Palae, the bottom right one on this picture, bordering the street.

It consists of a ground floor, a second floor, a top floor ("mezzanine") and a basement: 4500 m² in total, and a private backyard.

Frederik and Mary also featured in the docu talking extensively about their choices for ecological solutions and about the modern art now gracing the 18th century palace walls. The 4 identical palaces were built in roccoco style and were completed in 1750.

The family's dining room is now immersed in Kaspar Bonnén’s painting “Rummet kan aldrig lukkes – helt”.

Jesper Christiansen’s “Verdensrummet” (“Space”) in the large ground-floor vestibule.

Christiansen decorated the walls with huge maps – the whole world, Denmark, Tasmania, the world upside down etc – and interspersed it with items representing “public secrets” of Frederik & Mary's life. Behind the maps are black and white perspectives of the room as a look back at the rococo era when Amalienborg was built.

John Korner's first piece was rejected by Frederik & Mary, juding it too light. The second attempt, featuring a Danish soldier being shot in Afghanistan, now decorates one of the reception rooms.

Erik A. Frandsen’s “Blomster. Fælledvej” (“Flowers. Fælled Road”) features in Mary's office.

Frandsen is the only artist who has decorated two of the mansion’s rooms. In the official dining room he also created five huge mirrors of steel decorated with flowers, situated between the room’s pillars.

The only ceiling decoration was done by Eske Kath in a meeting room on the first floor. The painting shows the sun as the centre of the universe, something which is supposed to remind the high and mighty that they are only small pieces of an endless universe.

In the serving kitchen on the first floor the family now has Kathrine Ærtebjerg’s “Jagt". Like most of the artworks, this has been executed on the spot and Ærtebjerg has spoken of how that has influenced the outcome, thus strengthening the idea of this palace being a “Gesamtkunstwerk”.

For cooking the family relies entirely on their full time chef, René Raabjerg who has his large professional kitchen in the basement. This room is used to reheat and serve his food.

Morten Schelde's work depicts fragments from the royal couple's personal background, like one of the boats Frederik sailed on.

Tal R's artwork in the crown prince's study.

Other rooms were refreshed and renovated in the more traditional way.

The crown prince's private secretary's office.

Riddersal.

Another reception room, known as Faneværelse or Standard Room.

Music Chamber.

Have Sal or Garden Room.

Entrance Hall

Once the works were finished and before the family moved in, between March and June 2010, the Danes were also able to visit the palace. This prooved to be such a success that most of the rooms needed a minor refreshing before the royals could move in.

Only the official parts of the palace were shown and visited. On the top floor, or Mezzanine, are the private quarters of Frederik, Mary and the children. Those weren't shown, neither to the public nor on TV. The mezzanine consists of the family's bedrooms, various dressing rooms, the nanny's room and Mary's lady maid's work room.

The stairs and hallway between these floors were also entirely refurbished with custom made mirror lamps made by Olafur Eliasson.

The costs for the renovation topped 220 million Danish kroner (29, 5 million euro).

In later years other rooms were also adapted to Mary & Frederik's taste.

Also the garden was completely redesigned. Landscape architect Jacob Fischer developped a strict design for the 1660 m², with fruit trees, a water pavillion and custom made porphery benches by Jeppe Hein.