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An Unknown Star

about 1895

Full size, 20K

 

C. 1895. Bronze. Size 119,5 x 86 x 50 cm. Collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts; bequest of Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Rohde. Deposited at Vejen Art Museum in 1955. Granite base made in 1996 after an old photograph.

 

Exhibitions

Charlottenborg, 1895.
Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1898.
One-man show at the Free Exhibition Building, 1901.

 

Niels Hansen Jacobsen's accompanying text

The following was printed in the catalogue for the exhibition at Charlottenborg in 1895:

Alone, far out in the universe, where no human eye can reach, is a star whose light will not reach the Earth until it is itself extinguished.

 

The motif

There is no known literary or artistic model for this motif. "The Unknown Star" is personified by a young girl standing between the wings of a swan. She holds a star in each hand. On her head she wears a peacock decoration. Unfortunately, the figure was vandalized while it was on display in Vejen Park; the peacock's head was broken off.

 

Applied art

The statuette is said to have served as a lamp at Christiansborg Palace. It was very common at the time to use the female body as a decorative element. Niels Hansen Jacobsen's close friend, the sculptor Rudolph Tegner (1873-1950), made doorknobs and other utility items in the same spirit using intertwined human bodies. The Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris opened a special section for decorative art in 1892, and the exhibitions at Charlottenborg soon followed suit.

Rudolph Tegner: Candelabrum, 1896-1897.

Photo: Pernille Klemp.

 

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