Plaster, 1906. Bronze cast for the former Vejen Library (now the western part of Vejen Art Museum), date unknown . Inv. nos. 148a and 148b. The plaster was donated to the museum by Niels Hansen Jacobsen.

Exhibitions

The Free Sculptors' Exhibition, 1906. Plaster.
The catalogue notes that the bust was commissioned in bronze for the Royal Museum of Fine Arts.
The Free Sculptors' Exhibition, 1907. Bronze.
The bust is listed as being in the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts.
National Exhibition in Århus, 1909. Plaster.
The Free Exhibition, 1914. Bronze.

Johannes V. Jensen's writing

Niels Hansen Jacobsen associated with several cultural personages of his day, including Johannes V. Jensen (1873-1950), a highly respected author and one of the pioneers of Danish Modernism. Although he wrote both poetry and prose, his novel The King's Fall (1900-1901) is considered his most important work.

Århus Public Library

In 1948, the Århus Town Council granted the public library a sum to be used to decorate the facade of the main library facing Mølleparken. Ten bronze busts of leading authors from Jutland, including Niels Hansen Jacobsen's portraits of Johannes V. Jensen and Jeppe Aakjær, were purchased. The busts were unveiled on September 15, 1956.

Niels Hansen Jacobsen as a portraitist

The bust of Johannes V. Jensen is a naturalistically conceived portrait. Parallel with his sculpture production, Niels Hansen Jacobsen made a large number of portrait busts, many of them in ceramics. While he experimented radically with form in his sculptures, he worked very naturalistically in his portraits. Many of the busts that have been preserved were commissioned. Prominent locals commissioned portraits of themselves or their children. Children's portraits were often made purely because Niels Hansen Jacobsen himself wanted to "try out a face."