The Thorvaldsens Museum Archives

Abstract

Concerning the relationship between Thorvaldsen and his early love Sophie Amalie Kurtzhals, see her biography. There exists another letter between the two, dated 2.[??].1794. There are also two letters from her family. One is a cordial letter of 26.11.1824 from Kurtzhals’ brother, Niels Schønberg Kurtzhals, who sends greetings from “my brother-in-law and sister”, probably Sophie Amalie and her husband. The other is a letter of 8.5.1841 from the brother’s widow, Cathrine Elisabeth Kurtzhals. These letters show that Thorvaldsen had maintained friendly relations with the family.

The text of the greeting is the fourth stanza of the poem Aabenbarelsen (The Revelation) by Jens Baggesen. The text appears as an inscription on the watercolour, CX11 [Dep.19].

The text is part of the subject of the watercolour. It shows a winged female figure, undoubtedly an illustration of the “angel” of the poem, standing in front of a pedestal, on which the stanza of the poem by Baggesen is written. The angel points to the text but also to heaven, while bashfully turning her head away from the pedestal. The inscription Til Jomfrue Sophie Amalia Kurtzhals appears on the pedestal. The whole scene is set in an idyllic landscape.

The stanza chosen seems to emphasize Thorvaldsen’s close relationship with Kurtzhals. The poem, which is about the poet’s meeting with a dead lover, tells how the woman in the shape of an angel urges the poet to forget his grief but not her, and that passion is the best means to overcome this grief. Thorvaldsen has chosen the stanza in which the poet is changed into a painter of the spirit but still refers to the flame of bliss. This bliss, as the poet later indicates, can be obtained through the fire of passion: To comfort grief, relieve misery / The fire of passion was from Heaven sent; / And its pure, strong, straight flames / Purify the souls to bliss. / All the blessed watch in delight / The flame of two rapt mortals.

• Stig Miss: ‘Thorvaldsen privat’, in: Stig Miss et al. (ed.): 1796. København som Kulturby, Thorvaldsens Museum 1996, p. 92-93 (med farvegengivelse).
• Hans Wilh. Riber (ed.): Samling af Poesier, København 1788, hvori digtet, som Thorvaldsen citerer, blev trykt første gang.