The Thorvaldsen Letter Archives

Homage poems, love letters and large art contracts – Thorvaldsen’s letter collection is a priceless source of knowledge about both daily life and art in the world famous sculptor’s life.

Thorvaldsen’s wax seal.

Thorvaldsens Museum in Copenhagen contains a huge collection of more than 7000 documents and letters from, to and about the world-famous sculptor. In these letters, we meet Thorvaldsen’s family, Danish and foreign friends, outstanding European cultural figures, princes, aristocrats, artists, art-lovers and clients who were in touch with the best known Danish artist in the first half of the 19th century.

The Main Source of Our Knowledge of Thorvaldsen

The Thorvaldsen Letter Archives are the primary source of our knowledge of Thorvaldsen’s life and work. Here, anyone interested in Thorvaldsen can read everything from his correspondence with his fiancée to his diary entries, letters he exchanged with fellow artists, business letters and poems and speeches in honour of the great sculptor.

The documents not only extend our knowledge of Thorvaldsen’s works, but they also give an invaluable insight into the artistic, social, linguistic and political conditions of the time. For national and international Thorvaldsen scholars the archives will be a mine of materials which for many years to come will be able to generate materials for articles, books, exhibitions and much more.

Letter Publication in Two Stages

The publication of Thorvaldsen’s letters will take place in two stages: On Bertel Thorvaldsen’s 238th birthday 19.11.2008, the digital version of the letter archives opened at: http://brevarkivet.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/en/

Until 2011, all the source material so far known has been made accessible on the Internet in the form of transcriptions, and all letters in Thorvaldsens Museum have been scanned and can now be seen in facsimile.

However, accessibility is not everything: In order to provide the full benefit of the documents, they will in the second stage of the project – from 2011 onwards – be subjected to a critical scholarly examination and treatment. In other words: Each single document will be placed in its context; we want to know what they are about, and for what they provide the sources.

The aim is to create a veritable Thorvaldsen encyclopaedia that can provide us with a better understanding of the artist and his work. This research project will primarily consist of to two main sections: thousands of explanatory comments covering each individual document and numerous clarifying articles relating to various subjects spanning the material.

Only a small part of the material has so far been treated in this systematic manner.

Newly Developed, Internet-Based Work of Reference

The letters are published in their original languages, Danish, Italian, German, French etc. The explanatory commentaries, reference articles, pictures, biographies, chronological overviews, registers, search possibilities etc. combine to constitute a user-friendly work of reference in which it is easy to find what you are seeking, or where it is possible to roam around in the enormous masses of material.

The first stage of the project has been supported by The Velux Foundation, and the net-based Letter Archives have been developed in collaboration with the Oncotype design group. Finance has not yet been arranged for the second stage of the project.

A Unique Virtual World

The Internet publication of the letters and the associated materials are part of the Virtual Thorvaldsen Museum, which has made the museum into a front-runner in the digitalisation of the cultural heritage housed in Danish museums. This is an initiative that was awarded the Bikubenfonden prize for museums in the spring of 2008.