Brøndum's Hotel is on Anchersvej 3 in Skagen. The hotel dates back to the 1870s and was the hangout for Skagen painters such as Peder Severin Krøyer, and Anna and Michael Ancher. Architect Ulrik Plesner extended Brøndum's Hotel several times at around the turn of the century. Parts of the hotel caught fire in 1954 and 1959, and Brøndum's dining hall was designed in 1891 by Plesner and artist Thorvald Bindesbøll. The dining hall was decorated with the many paintings given to the Brøndum family over the years. That was because the Skagen Painters used pictures like this to pay for their food and keep. In 1946, the dining room was donated to Skagens Museum, where you can see it today.
Insatiable artists
Brøndum's dining room was the setting for the Skagen Painters' social life. Georg Brandes, the trendsetting literary figure of the time, described the scene in a manner that would make you think they did nothing but hang out together. The entire crowd sat from morning to evening around the table at Brøndum's, continually eating, drinking, debating, discussing, contradicting and trapping each other. A couple of times a day, they left the table and went for a swim." P.S. Krøyer's painting of a lunchtime scene from 1883 shows the friendly, festive atmosphere among the artists. The picture hangs in Brøndum's dining room together with a frieze of portraits of the celebrated members of the artistic circle. Brøndum's dining room is like a memorial to the Skagen Painters' close friendship. "