Plaster, 1896. A bronze version, 1902, is in the collection of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Bronze cast for Vejen, 1923. Size 157 x 198 x 85 cm. Inv. no. 166. The fountain with toads spouting water was made in 1923.

Exhibitions

Charlottenborg, section for decorative art, 1897. Plaster.
One-man show at the Free Exhibition Building, 1901. Plaster.
Charlottenborg, 1903. Bronze.

Trolls and superstition

During a visit to Denmark in 1896, Niels Hansen Jacobsen created an angry, ferocious troll in a vault under the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. The troll has caught the scent of a Christian and is sneaking along to sink his claws into him. Trolls belonged to the world of popular superstition that was still very much alive in Niels Hansen Jacobsen's time. In stories and legends, the landscape was populated by trolls, elves, and ghosts who either combated Christianity or helped out when prayer was not enough.

Decorative art

The troll was shown at the Spring Exhibition at Charlottenborg in 1897 in the section for decorative art, and not in the section for sculpture. Niels Hansen Jacobsen might himself have made the decision to exhibit it this way, following the symbolist view that all good art is decorative. The Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris opened a special section for decorative art in 1892.

Carl Jacobsen buys the troll

After his major one-man show in 1901, Niels Hansen Jacobsen notified Carl Jacobsen that he could buy all the sculptures at half price if he would put them on public display. Carl Jacobsen only bought "A Troll Scenting Christian Flesh" and "Death and the Mother". The rest of the sculptures had to be stored in the vaults under Christiansborg Palace.

The cost of casting the troll in bronze was borne by the Church of Jesus, and the sculpture was placed in front of the church in the Valby quarter of Copenhagen. It stood there until 1920, reaching out its claws towards churchgoers, serving as a symbol of superstition and evil. It was first transferred to the area along Tietgensgade at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, but was later moved to the park behind the museum, close to Auguste Rodin's "The Thinker."

Gothic inspiration

Niels Hansen Jacobsen experimented with sculptural form, and worked the surface abstractly with decorative angled furrows and grooves. In Niels Hansen Jacobsen's day, there was considerable interest in the narratives and visual expression of the Middle Ages, and the troll's resemblance to Medieval Gothic art is clear. Newspaper stands in France sold newfangled photographs of the curious figures that populate cathedral spires. Many artists considered Gothic art exemplary for its decorative, expressive, and non-naturalistic character. Niels Hansen Jacobsen's close friend Jens Lund painted a couple of "Chimera from Notre Dame de Paris" in 1909; today they hang in the Painting Room of the museum.

The troll fountain

At the time, the fountain was in operation all year year round with the hot water that had been used to cool the power plant's turbines. Anyone passing the fountain on a cold winter's day could see the troll wrapped in a dense mist or hung with enormous icicles.

The inauguration

The troll fountain was inaugurated on July 13, 1923, when spectators thronged around the speakers, including Niels Hansen Jacobsen's close friend, the author Jeppe Aakjær, who said:

...What a splendid idea it is, whoever conceived it, to let a stream of water that has toiled scalding hot between the oiled metal and ferociously rotating steel wheels, suddenly at a right angle to break out of the wall and perform tricks on the lawn. We call out to the poor sweating devil, and he comes right out of his hiding place and begins to spray the cunning troll with his boiling-hot stream; quick as lightning, he is inside once more, drudging away. It reminds us of blind Samson, who had to pull the mill wheel at one moment, play the harp at the next for the cruel masters who had enchained him. While we pity Samson, we are delighted by the natural forces that are enchained here, delighted by the amusing and ingenious union of utility and beauty that is exemplified before us...

WARNING

Today the water in the fountain is constantly recycled.
It is NOT DRINKING WATER!

Vejen's coat of arms