BISSEN, Hermann Wilhelm

(b. 1798 Schleswig, d. 1868 København)

Danish sculptor. He first studied painting in Copenhagen, then became a pupil of the sculptor Berthel Thorvaldsen. In 1824, he travelled to Rome and met Christian Daniel Rauch in Berlin. Under the influence of Thorvaldsen, his style changed from Romanticism to Neo-classicism.

Back in Denmark, Bissen became professor at the Academy of Arts, Copenhagen in 1834, changing in style to realism. Among his works are the monumental Landsoldaten (1858) in Fredericia and the Isted Lion (a Danish war monument originally intended as a monument of the Danish victory over Schleswig-Holstein in the Battle of Isted on July 25, 1850) (originally in Flensburg, now Copenhagen), the gold-plated statue of Bishop Absalon on the front of the Copenhagen City Hall and many smaller pieces.

Bathing Girl

In the Scandinavian countries, Neoclassicism remained a potent presence in the nineteenth century, notably in Denmark, where Thorvaldsen’s influence was still very strong. Hermann Wilhelm Bissen and Jens Adolph Jerichau were the great representatives of Danish Neoclassicism in mid-nineteenth century. However, this tradition was modified by numerous external contributions. Bissen, for example, who was seen as Thorvaldsen most direct heir, was not impervious to naturalism. His Bathing Girl is a case in point, with her distinctly Danish features and meditative aspect, so different from the cold serenity of Neoclassicism.

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Prince Paris

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Soldiers Burying their Dead

Hermann Wilhelm Bissen was the most distinguished pupil of Thorvaldsen. He was the principal executor of many of Thorvaldsen’s later international commissions. He also produced many dignified and restrained works in his own right. In war monuments such as Soldiers Burying their Dead, evidence of Realism occurs.

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The The Isted Lion (Istedløven)

This lion statue is a memorial of the battle of Isted (German: Idstedt). The inscription reads: “Isted den 20. Juli 1850”. It was first erected in 1862 in Flensburg, Germany, brought to Berlin in 1864 and since 1945 it is in Copenhagen.

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