FAQ









PAPER CUTS IN THE HCA MUSEUM

Sun's head
Almost his entire life, Hans Christian Andersen made paper cuts that he presented to friends and acquaintances. They were often improvised while he was engaging in a conversation or telling a story.

The Hans Christian Andersen Museum holds more than 200 original paper cuts, the oldest being from 1822. Not many of Andersen's paper cuts are preserved from the time before his international breakthrough c. 1840.

The recipients did not care much about them before this and therefore did not preserve them. The motifs are mostly Andersen's own original ideas and only in a few instances there are any connexion between the paper cuts and motifs from e.g. the fairy tales.


From Papercuts by Hans Christian Andersen you find not yet all of the museum's paper cuts, but still: more than a hundred! The cuttings may be used without charge for non-commercial use in newspapers, magazines, periodicals etc. together with the information: "Odense City Museums, Denmark". The paper cuts may not be sold, used in advertisement or for any other commercial purpose.

The paper cuts can be purchased in higher resolutions suitable for printing by contacting: . 

Three headed