Plaster, 1905. Size 45,2 x 56,3 x 36,5 cm. Inv. no. 159. Donated to the museum by Niels Hansen Jacobsen. Marble, 1920. Inv. no. 159A. Perhaps a gift of the Lauridsen family.

Exhibitions

The Free Sculptors' Exhibition, 1905. Plaster.
The Free Exhibition, 1920. Marble.
The catalogue notes that the bust was in the collection of Johannes Lauridsen.

The bust

Niels Hansen Jacobsen made this portrait of Maren Lauridsen in 1905. The original plaster model was shown at the Free Sculptors' Exhibition in Copenhagen that same year under the title "Portrait Bust." The bust was evidently commissioned by the Lauridsen family. A marble version of the bust, apparently made in 1917-1918, was shown at the Free Exhibition in 1920 together with a marble version of the portrait bust of Johannes Lauridsen. Both were in the collection of the family.

Maren Lauridsen, née Olsen (1850-1927)

Maren Olsen married Johannes Lauridsen in 1877, when she was 26 years old. The couple had six children. Maren Lauridsen ran the large household at the family farm, Grønvang, in Vejen, and later their home in Copenhagen, after Johannes Lauridsen was made director of the National Bank. The bust shows her at 55 years of age.

A daughter's comment

Magdalene Lauridsen, the couple's elder daughter, said of her mother:

Mother understood how simple means could be used to make the home cozy and lovely and attractive for Father and us children - and for all the guests who visited Grønvang over the years, both the old and the new house. Mother never had a free moment as long as I can remember, and in her early years she had a strong constitution and an unbelievable capacity for work that were utilized to the full, perhaps too much, for Mother became very nervous and anxious in time without knowing the reason, which undoubtedly was overexertion. But demands were considerable, and her abilities grew with them throughout Mother's and Father's long and eventful life, with its difficult and complex developments.