Bertel Thorvaldsen with the Statue of Hope

Copenhagen, Denmark
Circa 1870
Royal Copenhagen

This bisque figure is a copy of a self portrait by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. The original was created as a plaster model in his studio at Nyso Manor in 1839 and executed in marble posthumously by Herman Wilhelm Bissen in 1859. Bissen’s marble sculpture is on display in the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen. In 1894, a bronze cast was erected in Central Park in New York City. Thorvaldsen has depicted himself as a fairly young man in a work situation, dressed in a workman’s robe and with mallet and chisel in his hands, resting his left arm on a somewhat down-scaled representation of his 1817 statue of Hope. On the reverse of the base, one sees the mark of the Royal Copenhagen factory.

Porcelain
Height: 13 ¾”
P1035