11.8.1804

Sender

J.L. Lund

Sender’s Location

Rom

Recipient

Bertel Thorvaldsen

Recipient’s Location

Montenero

Information on recipient

Ingen udskrift.

Dating based on

Dateringen fremgår af brevet.

Abstract

Lund thanks Thorvaldsen for his letter and looks forward to their reunion in Rome. He informs Thorvaldsen that he has done as requested: checked on his studio and pressed the sculptors Camillo Landini (regarding the bust of Adam Gottlob Detlef Moltke, A212) and Peter Kauffmann (regarding the copy of an antique bust of Homer). Lund writes that Johan Bülow has commissioned a copy of an antique bust, and he sends regards from J.F. Clemens. Friederike Brun has sent gifts to her friends in Rome, but they have not yet arrived, and Thorvaldsen is asked to find out whether they have arrived at Leghorn. Anna Maria Uhden sends regards. Lund includes letters from Landini and Uhden and asks Thorvaldsen to buy him six neckcloths in Leghorn.

Document

Rom den 11de Augusti 1804.

Kiere Ven.

Deres BrevI og de gode Efterretninger fra Dem har jeg imodtaget med inderlig Glæde, og jeg haaber at see Dem frisk og velII ved Deres Tilbagekomst til RomIII. Deres ComissionerIV har jeg udrettet med den største Noyagtighed, og vil strax give Dem effterretning derom. For det første Deres Værkstedt, er saa meget jeg kan see i en god Tilstandt, som De forlod det. Grev Moltkes BüsteV er ikke meget avancert, jeg har været to gange i dag der for at tale med LandiniVI men har ikke truffen ham saasom han har sendt mig vedfølgende BrevVII, har han vist selv skreven Dem Aarsagen hvorfor han ikke har arbeidet derpaa men jeg skal skynde paa ham. KaufmanVIII har af det Stykke Marmor hvorudaf han har villet giøre Homers BysteIX, giort en andenX, som De ogsaa har bestillt hos ham, fordi han har funden nogen feil i Marmoren. han søger imidlertid at finde et andet Stykke, til Homers Byste.
Jeg har ogsaa faaet en Comission til Dem fra Geheimeraad v BülowXI i Fynen, som ønsker at De vilde lade giøre en Copie efter en antik BysteXII, vi skal tale derom naar De kommer tilbage. Hr ClemensXIII har opdraget mig, at hilse Dem meget.
Frue BrunXIV har tænkt paa hendes gode Venner i RomXV, hun har sendt en Casse med Porcellan, og TheeXVI med et Skib til Italien, og iblandt andet, har hun ogsaa giort os den Aere, at sende et Pund Thee som skal deeles imellem os to. Baron BrownXVII, har opdragetXVIII mig, at bede Dem, om De ikke kunde erfare af vores ConsulXIX i Livorno, om denne Casse maaskee er kommet til Livorno, og ifald den er der har De nok den Godhed, at tage den imod, og sende til Rom. ReinhartXX og den gode KellerXXI har ogsaa deel i en Casse.
Dersom De havde Leilighed, at kunde lade kiøbe for mig i Livorno et halv Dussin meget fine store HalsklederXXII vilde De giøre mig en stor Tieneste her er de for dyrt, det har Tid til De kommer tilbage. Sig. Anna MariaXXIII, har givet mig medfølgende BrevXXIV, og har anbefalet sig, at bede Dem, at skrive mere flitig end De har giort hidintilXXV, det vil fornoie mig meget, om De opfylder hendes Ønske, som ogsaa er mit. Med den største Fornoielse skal jeg udrette Deres ComissionXXVI. Jeg arbeider med MagtXXVII paa mit MalerieXXVIII, og haaber at see det anlagt, til Ende af den næste Maaned. Med samme Post skriver jeg til Hr Baron SchubartXXIX, der er ret lykkelig at kunde tilbringe nogen Tid i saadan et behagelig Selskab, og paa saadan et fordeelagtig Sted for Deres HelbredXXX, jeg haaber vi skal see de gode Følger deraf ved Deres TilbagekomstXXXI. Lev vel gode Ven, og lad mig see at De skriver snartXXXII til Deres   L. Lund

Undskyld mig at jeg har skreven i saadan en Hast. De vil have UmageXXXIII at læse det.

Oversættelse af dokument

Rome, August 11th 1804

Dear friend,

I have received your letter and the good news from you with sincere joy and I hope to see you in good health when you return to Rome. I have carried out your commissions with great care and will now inform you about them. Firstly your studio is as far as I can see in good condition, as when you left it. The bust for Count Moltke has not progressed much, twice today I have been there to talk to Landini, but did not see him and he has sent me the enclosed letter, I think he himself has written why he has not worked at it but I shall hurry him. Kaufman has from the piece of marble of which he wanted to make Homer’s bust, made a different one, which you have also commissioned from him, because he discovered some flaws in the marble, however he wants to find another piece for Homer’s bust. I have also had a commission for you from v. Bülow, titular Privy Councillor from Funen, who wishes you to have a copy made of an antique bust, we shall talk about it, when you return. Mr Clemens begs me to give you his sincere regards.
Madam Brun has thought warmly of her good friends in Rome, she has sent a crate with china and tea by ship to Italy and among other things she has also given us the pleasure to send a pound of tea which is to be shared between the two of us. Baron Brown has enjoined me to ask you if you could learn from our consul in Leghorn if this crate may have arrived at Leghorn and if it is there, will you please receive it and send it to Rome. Reinhart and the good Keller also have part in a crate.
If you had opportunity to buy for me in Leghorn half a dozen very elegant, large neckcloths you would do me a great favour, here they are too expensive, it can wait until you return. Signora Anna Maria has given me the enclosed letter and asks you to write more diligently than you have done so far, I shall be very pleased if you fulfil her wish, which is also mine. I shall carry out your commission with the greatest pleasure, I work with all my might at my painting and I hope to see it laid out at the end of next month. With the same post I write to Baron Schubart, who is quite happy to spend some time in such a pleasant company and in such a convenient place for your health, I hope we shall see the good results from it when you return. All the best, good friend, and write soon to your   L. Lund

Excuse me for writing in such haste. You will have some trouble reading it.


[Translated by Karen Husum]

General Comment

The letter is the answer to Thorvaldsen’s letter dated 6.8.1804, which he had sent to Lund during his stay at Montenero July-September 1804. The letter was apparently sent together with a letter from Lund to Baron Herman Schubart and Anna Maria Uhden’s letter to Thorvaldsen dated 10.8.1804, which explains the missing address on the letter.
On the last page of the sheet, at an angle of 90o to the text, there is a watermark showing a lion statant on a low pedestal. This is also seen on Lund’s letter dated “13.7.1804”:/dokumenter/m11804,nr.14.

Archival Reference

m1 1804, nr. 16

Thiele

Delvist gengivet hos Thiele I, p. 242-242.

Subjects

Persons

Works

A212 Adam Gottlob Detlef Moltke, november 1803 - januar 1804, inv.nr. A212
A751 Homer, 1799, inv.nr. A751

Commentaries

  1. Thorvaldsen’s letter dated 6.8.1804, of which only the draft is preserved.

  2. Thorvaldsen had been in poor heath since 1803, and his stay at Montenero was therefore primarily meant as a period of convalescence for him. See the related article about Thorvaldsen’s Illness1803-04.

  3. Thorvaldsen left Leghorn for Rome on 25.9.1804, cf. passport of the same date.

  4. In his letter dated 6.8.1804, Thorvaldsen had asked Lund to look after his studio and to ask the sculptor Camillo Landini to answer a letter, today unknown, from Thorvaldsen, and ask him how far he had progressed with Count Adam Gottlob Detlef Moltke’s bust, A212, (see the list of Letters Lost). Finally, Thorvaldsen asked Lund to see how far the sculptor Peter Kauffmann had got with his copy of an antique bust of Homer. Below, Lund gives an account of all the tasks he had been given. See the related article about Thorvaldsens Workshop Practice for more about the distribution of work in Thorvaldsen’ workshops.

  5. The bust of Count Adam Gottlob Detlef Moltke, which Thorvaldsen had modelled 1803-04. The original model is in Thorvaldsens Museum, A212, the marble version in Kunsthalle in Kiel.

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

  7. The letter from Landini to Thorvaldsen is not known today (see the list of Letters Lost). The letter apparently contained an explanation why he had not progressed farther with the bust of Count Adam Gottlob Detlef Moltke, which Thorvaldsen had modelled 1803-04. The original model is in Thorvaldsens Museum, A212, the marble version in Kunsthalle in Kiel.

  8. Thorvaldsen’s pupil, the sculptor Peter Kauffmann.

  9. This bust of Homer is not known today and must not be confused with Thorvaldsen’s own copy of an antique: Homer, A751, from 1799. It was probably the copy of Homer which Theodor von der Ropp had commissioned orally from Thorvaldsen, presumably in the spring of 1804, cf. letter from Ropp to Thorvaldsen dated 30.8.1804. In addition to the bust of Homer, Ropp’s commission included seven more busts of antiques, see the related article about Ropp’s Commission 1804-05 for more about this and the list of Lost Works by Thorvaldsen.

  10. It is not known what bust is referred to here, but it might be another of Ropp’s commissions, cf. the note above.

  11. I.e. the patron of the arts, Lord Chamberlain Johan Bülow of Sanderumgaard near Odense on Funen.

  12. In his letter to Lund dated 19.5.1804, the The Danish engraver J.F. Clemens passed on Johan Bülow’s inquiry about a bust.
    It is not known if the commission was ever realized.

  13. Clemens was a close friend of the above-mentioned Johan Bülow, whom he portrayed, E449.

  14. The author Friederike Brun, who had been in Rome 1802-03.

  15. The Roman friends referred to here, besides the ones mentioned in the letter, might very well be the same people who attended Friederike Brun’s farewell party (13.5.1803) a month before her departure from Rome (11.6.1803): Carl Ludwig Fernow, Wilhelm Friedrich Gmelin, Georg Zoëga, Antonio Canova, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Giovanni Torlonia, Angelika Kauffmann and Friedrich Rehberg, at whose house the party was given, see Friederike Brun née Münter: Römisches Leben, Leipzig 1833, vol. II, p. 173.

  16. So far, no additional reference to this parcel has been found in the Archives, and it is not known whether the gifts reached their destination.
    Such a request was not unusual at the time, thus Anna Maria Uhden requested some red goatskin and a pair of English scissors during Thorvaldsen’s travels in 1804 and 1805, see letters dated “3.7.1804”:/dokumenter/m11804,nr.14, 7.9.1805 and 30.8.1805, while Maria Zoëga asked Thorvaldsen to bring home two tortoiseshell combs from Naples, cf. letter dated 20.4.1804. The following year, Lund requested a pound of the very best tea from Leghorn because Roman tea, according to him, was only “second-rate”, cf. letter dated 31.8.1805. Requests of this kind were often made when people wanted a particular local commodity, a better quality, or a better price.

  17. I.e. John/Giovanni Brown, who, because of the difficulties the Romans had pronouncing his surname, was known as Baron Brown.

  18. Dvs. opdrage i betydningen at pålægge eller overdrage nogen en opgave, jf. Ordbog over det danske Sprog, pkt. 5.2.

  19. The Danish consul at Leghorn J.C. Ulrich.

  20. The German painter and etcher Joh. Christian Reinhart.

  21. The Swiss sculptor, poet, and archaeologist Heinrich Keller.

  22. Such a request was not unusual at the time, thus Anna Maria Uhden requested some red goatskin and a pair of English scissors during Thorvaldsen’s travels in 1804 and 1805, see letters dated “3.7.1804”:/dokumenter/m11804,nr.14, 7.9.1805 and 30.8.1805, while Maria Zoëga asked Thorvaldsen to bring home two tortoiseshell combs from Naples, cf. letter dated 20.4.1804. The following year, Lund requested a pound of the very best tea from Leghorn because Roman tea, according to him, was only “second-rate”, cf. letter dated 31.8.1805. Requests of this kind were often made when people wanted a particular local commodity, a better quality, or a better price.

  23. Thorvaldsen’s lover Anna Maria Uhden, who at this time must, perhaps rightly, have felt somewhat forgotten and ignored, cf. her letter dated 10.8.1804.

  24. I.e. Anna Maria Uhden’s letter to Thorvaldsen dated 10.8.1804. This practice of sending several letters together was quite common at the time, see the related article On Letters and Writing.

  25. Thorvaldsen had repeatedly attempted to finish a letter but not succeed in sending one until 6.8.1804. Regarding the unsent drafts, see probably the middle of July 1804.

  26. It is uncertain whether Lund here is referring to the request to go on looking after Thorvaldsen’s workshop, to send him news from Rome, or to something entirely different, but the reference was probably to one of the tasks already mentioned.

  27. Dvs. af yderste evne; af alle kræfter, jf. Ordbog over det danske Sprog, pkt. 1.1.

  28. Probably J.L. Lund’s first historical painting: Andromache Swooning at the Sight of Hector’s Dead Body, 1803-07. Read more about this in Lund’s biography.

  29. Baron Herman Schubart, at whose country house Montenero Thorvaldsen was staying at this time, see Thorvaldsen Chronology. Lund’ letter to Schubart is not known.

  30. Thorvaldsen had been ill since 1803, and his stay at Schubart’s country house Montenero near Leghorn was therefore primarily intended as a period of convalescence for him. See the related article about Thorvaldsen’s Illness 1803-04. Thorvaldsen had been staying there since the middle of July 1804.

  31. Thorvaldsen left Montenero 24.9.1804 and probably reached Rome at the beginning of October.

  32. Neither draft nor letter from Thorvaldsen to Lund from the period prior to Thorvaldsen’s return to Rome in October 1804 is known today, see the previous note. Thorvaldsen’s journey to Carrara with Herman Schubart and his occasionally slow letter writing might indicate that Thorvaldsen did not sent any more letters to Lund that autumn.

  33. Dvs. ulejlighed, besvær, jf. Ordbog over det danske Sprog.

Last updated 04.12.2017