Comment on Thorvaldsen's Spoken and Written Language
See, for example, the letter dated 11.7.1820 from Peder Horrebow Haste to Thorvaldsen: “Never in the past, good Thorvaldsen, have I attributed a single line to you. That is because I remembered perfectly well that you were no lover of writing, and so I could not expect any answer [from you]; and thus [our correspondence] had become a writing of letters, but not an exchange of them.” Or the letter from C. F. F. Stanley dated August 16, 1805: “… and parenthetically let me be permitted to say [that] I did not expect any writing, as unter uns Gesagt [between us] I know the good sir’s dispatch in matters of writing, and the gladness and soul’s delight with which you hold the pen.” Stanley’s sarcasm should be read in the context of the fact that Thorvaldsen is known with certainty to have sent him at least eight letters; see the list of Letters Lost, along with Lund, op. cit. p. 51. See also the letters associated with the topic Thorvaldsen’s Unwillingness to Write.
Last updated 03.10.2014