Bertel Thorvaldsen
København
Brevet er forsynet med sort laksegl. Ovalt signetaftryk med bogstaverne AK, to korslagte palmegrene for neden og en palmette for oven. Signetet har formodentlig tilhørt Sophie Amalie Kurthals’ far, Asman Kurtzhals, og brevet kunne derfor være skrevet hos denne.
Sophie Amalie Kurtzhals
Uvist hvor, antagelig ikke langt fra København
Udskrift: Til Iomfru / Sophie A Kurtzhals
Måneden lader sig ikke tyde, men dagen er sikkert den 2. og året er sikkert 1794. Muligvis er der, jf. kommentaren til “nok praket”, tale om november, men da det ikke kan afgøres med absolut sikkerhed er dateringen her angivet som 2.[??].1794.
Thorvaldsen apologizes to Kurtzhals because he did not have the time to bid her farewell before she left. He mentions that he may come to see her. It is not known where she went, presumably somewhere in the vicinity of Copenhagen.
Høystærede Venende
Jeg Beder skyldig om forladelse at ieg kom for sildig at Bede dem og deres Venende farvel, men Ieg haaber at digI eler Iomfru LundII tar mig det ikke fortrydelig op da Ieg kom strax da de var bote da Ieg ikke hafde vendet at de hafde Reyste bordt saa snart! men deres moder har talt om at Reyste der ud til dem saa Reyste Ieg med for en fiæl skylIII da Ieg kan have den fornøelse at tale med dem bædre en Ieg kan have med at skriveIV som de ser Ieg beder hilsem Iomfru Lund fra deres B. Thorvaldsen
Kiøbenhanv d 2de nok PraketV 1794
Dear friend,
I ask due pardons for being too late to say goodbye to you and your friend, but I hope that neither you nor Miss Lund resent it as I came as soon as you had left, since I had not expected you to leave so soon! –but your mother has talked about going out to you, then I shall go with her to be on the safe side as I may have the pleasure of speaking to you better than I can by writing as you see. Please give my regards to Miss Lund from your B. Thorvaldsen.
Copenhagen, the 2nd nok Praket. 1794
[Translated by Karen Husum]
Concerning the relationship between Thorvaldsen and his early love Sophie Amalie Kurtzhals, see her biography.
Only one more letter is known to exist from Thorvaldsen to Kurtzhals: Thorvaldsen’s watercolour CX11 [Dep.19] with New Year’s greetings 1.1.1794. In the Archive there are also two letters from Kurtzhals’ 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 letter of 8.5.1841 is from the brother’s widow, Cathrine Elisabeth Kurtzhals. These letters show that Thorvaldsen had maintained friendly relations with the family.
|
|
Albumblad til Sophie Amalie Kurtzhals, 1794, inv.nr. CX11 |
Last updated 06.08.2021
It is remarkable that Thorvaldsen here uses the familiar address “du” to Sophie Amalie Kurtzhals, while elsewhere in the letter he uses the formal “De”. This slip of the tongue may betray a wish, or maybe it rather reflects a difference between spoken and written language.
The same “mistake” is, interestingly enough, found in Kurtzhals’ entry of 5.6.1796 in Thorvaldsen’s album: “…Then travel far, my blessing will follow dem (formal) but no matter how far dig (familiar) go then never forget deres (formal) friends…”.
See also the list of persons who use the familiar pronoun when addressing Thorvaldsen in the documents of the Archive: On Familiar Terms with Thorvaldsen.
Unidentified, possibly the same person who is mentioned in the letter of 23.3.1798 from Gotskalk Thorvaldsen.
For en fejls skyld, dvs. for en sikkerheds skyld, jf. talemåden under betydning 2 af fejl i Ordbog over det danske Sprog.
Already in this early letter, one sees Thorvaldsen’s dislike of writing letters. According to Thiele 1831, p. XXI Thorvaldsen was said to have stated on occasion that “he would rather model two busts than write one letter.” However, this phrase, which has almost become a motto for Thorvaldsen’s attitude to letter-writing, probably comes from Herman Schubart, see letter of 30.9.1805 from Herman Schubart to C.F.F. Stanley.
Incomprehensible. Dyveke Helsted, op.cit., p. 27 suggests nok snaket (enough said(?), but this does not seem to make much sense in the context. If one looks at the visual picture of the text as a whole, there is a possibility that Thorvaldsen intended to write “nov. Aaret (nov. the year)”; thus the reading should be “2de nov Aaret (the second of Nov. the year) 1794”. This reading makes good sense, but in that case there would be a misspelling (“nok” instead of “nov”). It is, of course, not unknown for Thorvaldsen to make spelling mistakes, see the referential article about Thorvaldsen’s Spoken and Written Language.