Plaster, 1893. Size 185 x 186 x 106 cm. Inv. no. 135. Donated to the museum by Niels Hansen Jacobsen.

Exhibitions

Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1894.
Charlottenborg, 1895.
One-man show at the Free Exhibition Building, 1901.

Niels Hansen Jacobsen's accompanying text

The following text was printed in the catalogue when the figure was exhibited at Charlottenborg in 1895:

Astronomy
The Sphinx, buried in the sand, with its mysterious smile and its wondering gaze: this is the astronomy of olden days. Man still measures and ponders, trying to solve the infinite mysteries of the universe.

The motif

The sculpture is an original allegory with no known literary or artistic model. During his decade-long stay in Paris, Niels Hansen Jacobsen had ample opportunity to study the Louvre's Egyptian collections. A fascination with this ancient culture and the ancient science of astronomy may have inspired him. The nude man might personify astronomy in his own day, while the Sphinx is astronomy in ancient times. This personal use of symbols is typical of Symbolism, and can make symbolist works of art difficult to decipher. On the other hand, they often leave room for the beholder's own associations and thoughts.

The original arrangement of the Sculpture Hall

"Astronomy" played a leading role in the original arrangement of the Sculpture Hall, which was organized around a clear central axis. The Sphinx was the first thing that confronted the visitor. Niels Hansen Jacobsen consequently placed his own oeuvre in a millennia-long perspective. Above the Sphinx's head the visitor saw the man's arms and the compasses, which in this perspective measured not the stars but another one of Niels Hansen Jacobsen's sculptures, "Militarism".

William Blakes "Newton"

Niels Hansen Jacobsen might have known William Blake's (1757-1827) "Newton" from 1795, depicting the famous scientist symbolically as a nude man in the process of making calculations using compasses.