Danaë – Bronze Muse in Odense’s King’s Garden

Mythic figure in a Danish garden

Gerhard Henning’s bronze **Danaë** rests quietly among the trees and flowerbeds of Kongens Have, the King’s Garden, in central Odense. The sculpture depicts the princess from Greek mythology, famed for the moment when Zeus visited her in a shower of gold. Here, however, the drama is muted: Henning’s Danaë is stretched out, self-contained and calm, her curves flowing gently rather than striking a heroic pose. The intimate scale suits the garden perfectly, drawing you closer rather than shouting for attention across the lawns. Henning, Swedish-born but long active in Denmark, became known for his lyrical, sensuous treatment of the human body. In Danaë he combines classical subject matter with a distinctly Nordic softness. The bronze surface catches the shifting light from the park’s canopy, so that on bright days highlights trace the figure’s outline, while on overcast afternoons she seems to sink further into contemplation.

A journey from cement to bronze

Danaë has not always looked as she does today. In 1928 the Ny Carlsberg Foundation donated an early version in metallic cement to Odense, installed first in Munke Mose and later in what is now Eventyrhaven. Wind, rain and frost gradually wore that figure down until it had to be moved indoors to the local museum. The present bronze cast, again a gift from the same foundation, arrived in 1965 and spent some years in Eventyrhaven before being relocated in 1984 to Kongens Have beside the castle. That slow migration across Odense has made Danaë a quiet thread in the city’s cultural landscape, crossing from riverside park to fairytale garden and finally to the formal royal grounds. The current bronze has aged far more gracefully than its cement predecessor: the metal has taken on a soft patina, especially in the folds and hollows, hinting at decades of Danish weather and the touch of countless curious hands.

Setting among baroque lines and city life

Kongens Have itself dates back to the 1720s, originally laid out as a baroque garden for the adjacent Odense Castle. Straight avenues of trees, clipped hedges and open lawns still echo that formal geometry, even though plantings have changed over time. Today it is a green breathing space framed by the castle, the railway station and city streets, with ducks circling the pond and flowerbeds adding seasonal colour. Within this setting, Danaë occupies a more intimate corner near the water and mature trees. You glimpse her between trunks or over the curve of the pond, a human-scale counterpoint to the castle’s white façades and the long, ordered lines of the avenues. Other sculptures are dotted through the park, but Henning’s reclining figure feels particularly at ease here, half-hidden yet easy to find for those who look.

Pause, detail and quiet observation

Encountering Danaë is less about spectacle and more about taking a moment to slow down. From close range you notice the modelling of the limbs, the relaxed turn of the head, and the way the figure occupies her base as if it were a bed or low couch. The bronze is smooth in places, rougher in others, bearing the marks of both artist and foundry. Benches nearby invite you to sit and share her point of view across the grass and the pond. The sounds of the city filter in—bicycle bells, train announcements, children playing—yet the immediate circle around the sculpture often feels surprisingly calm. It is an easy detour if you are already in the garden, and a rewarding one for anyone interested in twentieth-century sculpture, classical themes, or simply finding a quiet focal point for a few reflective minutes.

An artful stop on a wider Odense walk

Because Kongens Have links the station area with Odense’s historic core, Danaë fits naturally into a broader wander through the city. Nearby you find the castle, theatres, churches and, a short stroll away, the clusters of sights linked to Hans Christian Andersen. In that company, Henning’s mythological heroine adds another layer to Odense’s blend of stories—this time drawn not from Danish folklore, but from the ancient Mediterranean, reimagined in bronze beneath Danish skies. Seen in this light, Danaë is both a standalone artwork and part of a sequence of sculptures scattered through Odense’s parks and riversides. Spending a little time here, you begin to notice how carefully the figure is oriented within the landscape, how the garden frames her, and how she, in turn, gives the surrounding greenery a focal point of quiet human presence.