19.11.1770 – 24.03.1844

The son of the woodcarver Bertel Thorvaldsen was born in Copenhagen in 1770. Father managed to instill in the boy a love of art, and already in 1781 Thorvaldsen became a student of the Royal Academy of Arts in Copenhagen.

His main mentor was the famous Danish sculptor Widevelt. In 1793, Thorvaldsen received the Great Gold Medal for relief “Peter heals the lame,” and with it – the right of pensionership in Italy, and in 1796 Thorvaldsen went to Rome.

In Italy, Thorvaldsen will spend most of his life, about forty years. For all the love of the works of ancient sculptors, for example Phidias or Praxiteles, Thorvaldsen, however, did not become their blind imitator. Antique art was for Torvaldsens the source of inspiration, in his creative way he always remained highly individual, true to his peculiar genius, equally strong in the statue and in the field of relief.

The sculptor worked in the genre of portrait. In general, these are monuments-monuments: Copernicus for Krakow Cathedral, Schiller in Stuttgart, Byron in Cambridge. In 1818, Thorvaldsen created a sculptural portrait of Maria Fedorovna Baryatinskaya, the wife of the famous Russian diplomat II Baryatinsky.

In 1820, Thorvaldsen was commissioned the sculptural decoration of the main cathedral of Copenhagen – the Cathedral of Our Lady. The artist creates an ensemble, which includes the twelve figures of the apostles, placed along the walls of the central nave of the cathedral, the figure of Christ in the apse.

Thorvaldsen died suddenly in Copenhagen on March 24, 1844, attending an evening performance at the Royal Theater. Before his death, the great sculptor bequeathed all his works to the city.