JACOBSEN, Niels Hansen - b. 1861 Vejen, d. 1941 Vejen - WGA

JACOBSEN, Niels Hansen

(b. 1861 Vejen, d. 1941 Vejen)

Jacobsen, Niels Hansen (also Hansen-Jacobsen, Niels) was a Danish sculptor and ceramist who is famous for making the, at the time of creation, controversial sculpture, Troll Who Can Smell Christian Blood.

He was born and raised in the small town of Vejen. He completed his studies in sculpture at the Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen from 1884 to 1888. At the academy he met his first wife, Anna Gabriele Rohde (1862-1902). She was herself an artist, as well as being related to the painter Johan Rohde. From 1891 until after the turn of the century, the couple lived in Paris.

Gabriele died suddenly in 1902 while the couple was spending a holiday in Denmark. Soon afterwards Jacobsen gave up their home in Paris and settled in his hometown Vejen, living in The Hut, a pensioner’s house on the family farm. In 1908 he married Kaja Jorgensen (1882-1928), a grocer’s daughter from Vamdrup. Jacobsen lived there until his death in 1941. His studio was later turned into a museum.

Motif from The Story of a Mother by Hans Christian Andersen

In a dynamic pose, Death strides over the mother crouching on the ground. Her dead child is half hidden by the fluttering cloak.

Hans Christian Andersen’s (1805-1875) tale The Story of a Mother provided the literary source of Hansen Jacobsen’s sculpture.

In addition to this original plaster model, two bronze versions of the sculpture exists. One is located on the St. Petri cemetery in Copenhagen, while the other is placed by the museum that houses Jacobsen’s life’s work: Vejen Kunstmuseum.

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The Shadow

The Shadow is Niels Hansen Jacobsen’s principal Symbolist work. In an original move, he translates his concept of death into a sneaking, creeping figure so bound with the underworld that it merges with the soil.

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The Shadow

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The Troll Who Can Smell Christian Blood

The Troll Who Can Smell Christian Blood, in the garden of Copenhagen’s Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, is clearly out hunting. His body resembles a rough-barked tree, and he bends low to catch the scent. Many tales and legends of the north were created in an atmosphere that seemed to anticipate Expressionism.

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