The Collection of Danish Early Modern Art includes a small, yet exquisite and diverse collection of smaller sculptures, consisting mainly of human and animal figures made of a range of materials, including silver, wood, bronze and earthenware. Together, they show how artists of the period around the year 1900 were looking for new ways of expressing themselves. It sometimes prompted them to depart from the techniques that were their starting point as did the painter Johannes Larsen.

C.L David’s aunt, the sculptor and painter Agnes Lunn (1850–1941), whetted his interest in sculptures. She herself worked mainly with bronze sculptures in smaller formats – the so-called statuettes. Art objects of this type became popular collectors’ items in the early twentieth century and were greatly appreciated by C.L. David.