The National tribune., 1909-12-23


containing this great sculptors work,
and Elizabeth and l had made up our
minds in talking the matter over be-
Iforehand that we would not try to see
|anything else. 1t seems to me that 1t
is a great deal more sensible in trav-
cling, if one has only a day or two to
spend in a place, to try to get gen.
eral idea of the city, and then take in
it's principal attraction, whether it be
an art gallery or something else, ana
this is the rule Elizabeth and l have
followed up to this time.
The Thorwaldsen Museum, the build
ing mean now, is quite a snow IN IT.
self 1t is a low structure, dark red IN
color, and is built in the style of an
Etruscan tomb. over the entrance Is
a big bronze goddess of victory, de-
signed by Thorwaldsen, and its three
other sides are covered with scenes in
plaster, representing different epochs
in the life of the great artist. INSIDE
il is a dream of beauty, faVorite niece
and Elizabeth and l both said it was
well worth a trip across the ocean If
one saw nothing else. l do hope 1t
may be your good fortune some day
to wander from room to room as we
did, enchanted by the exquisite pictures
in stone which the cold marble had sur
rendered under the hand of the mas
ter. If architecture be frozen music,
these heavenly things of Thorwaldsen
are music poetry, painting, everything
of beauty in the world confined in
block of pure marble, released by the
poet brain and inspired hand OF this
celebrated Danish ScUlntor-
ThorwaIdsen was born in this city OF
Copenhagen just three years before the
Boston tea party" and from his tath-
er, an Iceland woodcarver, possibly in
herited his talent He went to Italy
/,f cp,,rca bo 1jdl when he was 2l
years old, and remained there 23 years.
Canova, the great Italian sculptor, was
then in the hight of his glory. and L
think Thorwaldsen studied with him.
At all events Canova praised the
Danes work very highly. Thorwaldsen
returned to his own country, did lot
of work, and died quite suddenly while
attending the theater in Copen-
hagen in 1914, leaving a part of
his fortune to build museum, with all
his collection of works to be placed in
il, and request to be buried in the
court yard of the museum under n bed
of roses. which was done. Perhaps
his work best known to Americans is
his Christ" and the bronze lions" at
Lucerne; at least Elizabeth and L
couldn't seem to think of any others in
studying the guide book on Denmark
before coming to Copenhagen
The collection is charmingly and
most artstically" arranged, and with
such consideration, too, for the tired
sightseer. The rooms containing the
statuary are all very small, indeed, and
in the lower end arc two chairs, where
one can sit and feast the eyes without
that perfectly dead gone" feeling that
sticks closer than a brother to you
when doing any kind of a collection,
pictures or whatever it may be. OF
course, most art galleries have seats,
but there are not half enough of them,
and, as a general thing. the rooms are
so big that you have to stand to see
most of the pictures, anyway; but these
rooms in the Thorwaldsen Museum in
Copenhagen are so small that you can
take in everything from your chair,
and the pleasure is increased about a
thousandfold by the entire elimination
of this question of fatigue. Each room
contains one large piece. either Il single
figure or a group, and only one. but the
walls are covered with the most ex-
quisite rcliefs, the daintiest, lovcliest
things you can possibly imagine, many
of them NEUROLOGICAL in subject, with
hewitchinE little Cupid very much in
evidence. There was one that both
Elizabeth and | loved, representing this
baby mischief-maker holding up
finger stung by Il bee to seated god
dess. The expression on his little face,
with the tears running down his
cheeks, and that on hers, of sweet,
motherly sympathy, was enough to
make one weep for joy. 1t was too
sweet and dear Tor Tords, and there
were hundreds almost if not quite as
charming as this. These were all in
marble, you know, no casts or anything
like that. and it is beyond my power
TO describe the charm of them. The
large statues were wonderfully beau
tiful.
Elizabeth and I spent the best part
of the day in the museum, for we sim
ply couldn't drag ourselves away, but
managed to get in drive over the city
in the afternoon. Copenhagen is a
very handsome city of about 500,0 900
inhabitants, with wide streets and big,
open places, which you are constantly
coming upon. It's art galleries, mu-
seums and public buildings generally
are numerous and impressive, and, like
the London buildings are either black
from age or are built of a dark gray
stone. 1t is rather a somber-looking
city on this account, and quite unre-
leVed by handsome, up-to-date edificcs
either in the residence or business por-
tons. There are a good many large,
fine parks and a particularly good
botanical garden. The Winter palaces
of the King, the Crown Prince and
other members of the royal family
make a hollow square, and are all very
black, without the least ornamental
ton, big and distinctly ugly. The city
has the same nice trolley cars with
the looped- back white curtains that we
saw in Christiania, but the people you
see walking around, tho almost entire
ly Scandinavian, are not so good look
ing nor so fresh looking, l might say,
as those of Norways Capital while
they are, on the whole. more pictur-
esque, perhaps. There were quite a
number of soldiers walking along
mingled with the crowds of pedes-
trians, and these looked too funny in
their tiny hats, like aE inverted boat
stuck jauntily on one side. One won
dered what kept them on, the crowns
looked so small, and Elizabeth and /
tried to imagine an American soldier in
anything of the kind. 1t looked too
silly for words, and to conceive of a
creature in hat like that being a
"bulwark of a Nation" or even a bull
warket, is asking bit too much of the
lightest brain. You might possibly fit
MIN In as the manager of a merry-go-
round show in Coney Island kind of
place; but as doing anything more seri-
Gus, never. The gay, organ-monkey
sort of uniform which went with this
foolish hat was worthy of it, and how
any country could have been willing
to subject its military to the ridicule
they must excite, among strangers, at
least, when they appear in this garb lis
more than l can understand. Copen-
hagen is city with a decided "atmos-
phere. 1t seems old and intellectual,
like London. You feel that it has an
interesting history, as, of course IL has