Ordrupgaard's founder, Wilhelm Hansen, wanted to spread awareness of French 19th century art in Denmark, and his first purchases were paintings by Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir. Wilhelm Hansen's main focus was the French impressionism, but with downstrokes into the periods that came immediately before and after the impressionism. Thus represent Eugène Delacroix Romanticism, Théodore Rousseau the Barbizon School, Gustave Courbet realism, Édouard Manet modernism and Paul Gauguin Symbolism at Ordrupgaard.