Statuette version, 1895. Plaster, 1902-1903. Size 144 x 220 x 87 cm. Inv. no. 145. Donated to the museum by Niels Hansen Jacobsen.

Exhibitions

Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1895. Statuette, pewter.
Charlottenborg, 1896. Statuette, pewter.
One-man show at the Free Exhibition Building, 1901. Statuette, pewter.
The statuette was described here as being a sketch for an epitaph. Charlottenborg 1903. Epitaph. Plaster.
Charlottenborg 1904. Epitaph. Bronze.

Accompanying text

If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, And thy right hand shall hold me.

Psalms, 139:9-10

The motif

"The First Blush of Dawn" is personified by a kneeling, nude young woman with outspread wings instead of arms. On the plinth beneath her is a stylized rising sun in relief. This ornament was most probably taken from a model by Jens Lund (1871-1924), Niels Hansen Jacobsen's close friend during his years in Paris.

The epitaph

Niels Hansen Jacobsen and his wife were in Denmark in 1901-1902 for the one-man show at the Free Exhibition Building. In 1902, Gabriele Hansen Jacobsen died, only 40 years of age. A life-size bronze cast of "The First Blush of Dawn" stands on her grave in Holbæk Cemetery. Another cast was erected in 1919 at Vamdrup Cemetery as a memorial for H. J. Jørgensen, Niels Hansen Jacobsen's second father-in-law, and his family.

A Christian interpretation

The sculpture's symbolism can be read from a Christian perspective. The young winged woman can be interpreted as an angel, though angels normally wear a long robe and have both wings and arms. The link between the angel and "The First Blush of Dawn" can be found in a Danish psalm by B. S. Ingemann. The figure's position forms a cross. "The First Blush of Dawn" can thus be interpreted as a guardian angel watching over the dead, or a messenger of mercy that brings tidings not only of the coming of dawn, but also of the coming of the day of the Resurrection.

Longing for a better world

The symbolism of the Resurrection can also be interpreted in more general terms, as an idealistic longing for the rebirth of the world, the dawn of a new and more beautiful world. There is something about Niels Hansen Jacobsen's figure that is foreign to Christianity. The combination of a human and an animal body brings to mind Egyptian deities - Niels Hansen Jacobsen is said to have made careful studies of the wings of a dead swan - and the woman's inscrutable facial expression resembles that of a sphinx, an enigmatic messenger.