Bertel Thorvaldsen
København
Christine Stampe
Nysø
Dateringen skyldes Stampe, op. cit.
Thorvaldsen thanks Christine Stampe for his stay at Nysø. He also tells her a little about his social life in Copenhagen.
...Tak for alt godt som jeg har nydt hos DemI og Deres Familie og hils alle Beboerne paa det yndige NysøeII. Vi ere alle ankomne her til København i godt Befindende men langsom, vi kom først Kl. 9½, vi saae i Kiøge Grev Christian DanneskioldIII og hans Kone som var taget fra Kiøbenhavn Kl. 1 og var 3½ i KiøgeIV, det kalder man at fareV....
... Jeg sitter herVI hvor jeg har det godt og bequemt, men jeg mangler dog formeget, som jeg ikke kan have her, og det er min Gamle MutterVII, hun er dog den eneste jeg har paa Jorden, Gud velsigne hende! ...
Jeg er budet til Middag hos Pr. ThieleVIII, og derfra gaaer vi i TheatretIX. Jeg har ikke været ude idag, det er saa slet Veir.
...Thank you for the great kindness I have enjoyed with you and your dear family, and please, give my regards to all people at the lovely Nysoe. We have all arrived here in Copenhagen in good health but slowly, we only arrived at half past nine; in Koege we saw Count Christian Danneskiold and his wife who had left Copenhagen at 1 o’clock and were in Koege at half past three, that is called rushing....
... I am sitting here, where I am well and comfortable, but I miss too much, which I cannot have here, and that is my dear old Mum, she is the only one I have on earth, God bless her!...
I have been invited for dinner at professor Thiele’s and from there we shall go to the theatre. I have not been out of doors all day, the weather is so bad.
[Translated by Karen Husum]
The whereabouts of the letter is not known, but the letter is reproduced in Stampe, op. cit., p. 292 and 351. The text is probably just en excerpt of the complete letter.
Last updated 26.06.2017
Thorvaldsen had celebrated his birthday 19.11.1840 at Nysø and had then gone to Copenhagen.
Nysø Manor near Præstø, where Christine Stampe lived.
The Danish nobleman Christian Conrad Sophus Danneskiold-Samsøe (1800-1886), who was the son of Conrad Danneskiold-Samsøe.
They had thus travelled about 40 km in 2,5 hours, which corresponds to about 16 km an hour, quite a good speed for a horse-drawn vehicle.
Det vil, jf. Ordbog over det Danske Sprog (fare, betydning 2.1) sige bevæge sig hurtigt, ile.
I.e. at Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, where Thorvaldsen had his residence, see the related article about Thorvaldsen’s Residences.
Thorvaldsen called Christine Stampe his “Old Mum” in spite of the fact that she was 27 years younger than him. The pet name is probably due to the motherly solicitude with which Stampe treated Thorvaldsen.
The Danish author, Professor Just Mathias Thiele.
This is probably the Royal Theatre, for which Thorvaldsen had a pass.