4 of 44

 

 

 

A Bocciaplayer watching his Throw

1891

Full size, 52K

Plaster, 1891. Size 162 x 90 x 110 cm. Collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, purchased in 1891. Deposited at Vejen Art Museum in 1955.

 

Exhibitions

Charlottenborg, 1891.
Société des Artistes Français, Champs Elysées, Paris, 1892.
QZ One-man show at the Free Exhibition Building, 1901.

 

The sculpture's motif

Niels Hansen Jacobsen depicted a young nude athlete. The motif seems classical at first glance, but the execution is naturalistic, the muscles' progress carefully detailed. The figure is a snapshot that freezes the player's movement just after he has thrown his ball. The figure's gaze is focused intensely before him. We can easily imagine the court in front of him and his concentration on the ball.

 

The exhibition in Paris

"A Boccia Player Watching his Throw" was exhibited at Charlottenborg in 1891 and was purchased by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. Niels Hansen Jacobsen then evidently took it with him to Paris, where he lived with his wife Gabriele (née Rohde) from around 1892 to 1902. A French review - his first abroad - shows that the figure was exhibited in 1892 at the Société des Artistes Français. The reviewer noted the figure's similarity to the "Discobolus" (Discus Thrower) and its highly academic look.

During his study visits to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Niels Hansen Jacobsen probably passed "The Boccia Player" (1857) by G. C. Freund (1821-1900). A bronze cast of the figure was paid for in 1885 by Carl Jacobsen.

In the Botanical Gardens, Niels Hansen Jacobsen might moreover have seen a bronze copy of the antique sculpture the "Discobolus" by Myron. It, too, was paid for by Carl Jacobsen.