Bertel Thorvaldsen in Bronze Shop

Bertel Thorvaldsen was born on November 19, 1770 in Norway and became a famous sculptor. He was born as son of an Island woodcarver named Gotskalk Thorvaldsen and his wife Karen Dagnes. He got educated by his father, but after his talent was recognized, he attended the Royal Academy of Arts at the age of eleven and got trained by Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard (* September 11, 1743; † June 4, 1809).

In 1787 he got honoured with the small silver medal for his talent and his work and two years later he was honoured again, this time with the big silver medal for another sculpture he executed. After finishing a relief in 1791 he got honoured again and in 1793 he got the big gold medal for the relief of St. Peter. Furthermore he attracted the attention of Christian Frederick Reventlow, who became one of his patrons.

Another consequence of his gold medal was a granted Royal stipend that allowed him to move to Rome and to stay there for at least three years.

But Thorvaldsen did already some commissioned work; leaving immediately was impossible. In August 1796 he finally started travelling to Rome, but arrived not until March 8, 1997 because he stopped in Malta and Naples. Finally arrived in Rome, he created several sculptures he sent the sculpture “Bacchos and Ariadne” to Copenhagen.

The Academy just loved this sculpture and agreed to renew his stipend for two more years; in 1802 they renewed it again for another year. During this time he met the sculptors Franz Pettrich (* August, 29, 1770; † January 23, 1844) and Carl Friedrich Hagemann and he also got in touch with Thomas Hope (* 1769; † February 3, 1831), who charged him with creating the sculpture “Jason”.

Back in Copenhagen the sculptor was announced a fully member of the Royal Danish Academy of Art and also became a member of honour of the Art Academy in Bologna. This time the sculptor was among other things working for Napoleon Bonaparte.

In 1815 the artist felt into a crisis and pulled out to Montenero. Suffering his creative crises he was still creating sculptures, at least some of his best ones. On October 3, 1818 he went back to Copenhagen and become a professor at the Academy of Art.

It was the year 1920 when he left his home country and travelled through Austria, Poland and Germany back to Italy. Arrived in Italy, he executed his most popular artworks; a bronze monument for Nicolaus Copernikus and a memorial for Pope Pius VII.

Thorvaldsen spent the next years in Denmark and in Italy where he did some requested work. His last station was Copenhagen, where he broke down during a theatre performance; he died the same night on March 24, 1844 in Copenhagen.