13.7.1804

Sender

J.L. Lund

Sender’s Location

Rom

Recipient

Bertel Thorvaldsen

Recipient’s Location

Livorno

Information on recipient

Udskrift: à Monsieur / Monsieur Thorvaldsen: / sculpteur danois / recommandée aux / soins de Mr. UllrichI / consul de S. M. danoise / à Livourne]

Dating based on

Dateringen fremgår af brevet.

Abstract

Lund sends greetings and requests from Anna Maria Uhden. He informs Thorvaldsen that he has given money to Camillo Landini and to another sculpture on his behalf. He asks Thorvaldsen to recommend him to Herman Schubart and writes that he has received a grant for another two years in Rome.

Document

Rom d 13d Juli 1804.

Jeg benytter den gode Leilighed, at skrive Dem at par Ord, saasom jeg formoder De er i LivornoII ; jeg haaber De befinder Dem vel. I dette Øieblik har jeg været hos S. Anna MariaIII, for at spørge hende, om hun havde noget at sige Dem, hun hilser Dem, og beder ikke at glemme den Comission hun har givet Dem, at kiøbe et Stykke rød MarocinoIV til hende i Florenz: hun begriber ikke at De inte har skreven hende til, og længes meget efter et Brev fra DemV. Til LandiniVI har jeg udbetalt de 8 Piaster, De har givet mig til ham, og til den BilledhuggerVII, som boer i ZoegasVIII Hus har jeg givet imod en Quittering, 12 Piaster, som han forlangde.
Jeg beder Dem, at recomandere mig til Hr. Baron v. SchubartIX. De vil sikkert have hørt, at jeg har faaet en Pension i to AarX. Om De har et Oieblik tilovers, vær saa god, og sig mig i et par OrdXI hvorledes De lever; jeg befinder mig vel, og haaber at høre det samme fra Dem. Skal vi ikke snart see Dem i RomXII? Glem ikke

Deres L. Lund

Oversættelse af dokument

Rome, July 13th 1804

I take the opportunity to write a couple of words to you, as I presume you are in Leghorn; I hope you are well. I have just been to see Signora Anna Maria to ask her whether she had anything to say to you, she sends her regards and asks you not to forget the commission she has given to you to buy a piece of red Marocchino for her in Florence: She cannot understand that you have not written to her and misses very much a letter from you. I have paid out the 8 Piaster to Landini, which you have given me for him and to the sculptor living in Zoega’s house I have given 12 Piaster which he demanded in return for a receipt.
I beg you to recommend me to Baron v. Schubart. You will have heard that I have received a pension for two years. If you have a moment to spare, then please tell me in a couple of words how you are doing. I am well and hope to hear the same from you. Shall we see you soon in Rome? Do not forget

Your L. Lund.


[Translated by Karen Husum]

General Comment

The paper has been torn in the middle, and there is a hole at the edge where there has been a black wax seal.

Archival Reference

m1 1804, nr. 14

Thiele

Ikke omtalt hos Thiele.

Other references

Subjects

Persons

Commentaries

  1. I.e. the Danish consul in Leghorn J.C. Ulrich.

  2. Baron Herman Schubart had, presumably during their stay together in Naples in April of that year, invited Thorvaldsen to spend the hot summer months with him and his wife, Jacqueline, at their country house Montenero. Thorvaldsen had been ill for a long time and needed rest, see the related article Thorvaldsen’s Illness 1803-04 about this.
    Therefore, Thorvaldsen had left for Florence at the end of May with Count Adam Gottlob Detlef Moltke, see the Thorvaldsen Chronlogy. Han had apparently planned to arrive at Leghorn and Schubart’s Montenero during June but remained until the middle of July in Florence, which he had not visited before. Thus, Thorvaldsen did not arrive at Montenero until around the date of Lund’s letter.

  3. I.e. Signora Anna Maria Uhden, Thorvaldsen’s lover for many years. It is not known whether Thorvaldsen managed to see her during his brief stay in Rome on his way from Naples to Florence. If he did not (or deliberately omitted it), she had not seen him since his departure for Naples in the middle of April of that year. No sent letters have been preserved from him to her in the period April-6.8.1804, and the contents of both drafts and letters from this summer indicate that he did not write to her, see e.g. letter dated 6.8.1804 and draft dated probably the middle of July 1804. Her request for a piece of red Marocchino for shoes, cf. below in Lund’s letter, could be an indication that they had seen each other in Rome before his departure for Florence. However, this request might just as well have been expressed before his departure for Naples.

  4. This is a particularly fine quality of soft goatskin. Thorvaldsen may not have brought what she wanted as the request was repeated the following year in a letter from C.F.F. Stanley to Thorvaldsen dated 7.9.1805. It says here that the leather was to be used for shoes.
    In a later letter dated 30.8.1805, Anna Maria asks Thorvaldsen to bring her a pair of “English scissors”.

  5. Se the comment on S. Anna Maria above for information about Thorvaldsen’s letters to her.

  6. Thorvaldsen’s assistant, the sculptor Camillo Landini.

  7. A sculptor who lived on the floor below Georg Zöega at Palazzo Tomati, Strada Gregoriana. He is probably identical to the sculptor who is mentioned in the letter dated 30.8.1805 from Camillo Landini to Thorvaldsen. This sculptor has not yet been identified.

  8. The archaeologist Georg Zoëga, who lived in Palazzo Tomati, Strada Gregoriana.

  9. Baron Herman Schubart, with whom Thorvaldsen had stayed “from the middle of July 1804”:/kronologi/vis/1195. On 24.9.1804, Thorvaldsen left Schubart in order to go to Rome.
    Through his many influential contacts, Schubart was very important to artists arriving in Rome in the early 1800s, for more about this see his biography and the related article about his country house Montenero.

  10. Lund had been awarded a royal travelling grant for two years, 1804-06, and was informed about this in a letter dated 19.5.1804. Thorvaldsen, however, enjoyed Lund’s company in Rome until 1810 and again from 1816 to 1819.

  11. Thorvaldsen answered Lund’s letter 6.8.1804, and during the summer he had made attempts at finishing a letter to him. See references to the other drafts in the final draft dated 6.8.1804.

  12. Thorvaldsen did not return to Rome until the end of September 1804, see the Thorvaldsen Chronology.

Last updated 20.11.2017