{{Short description|Danish sculptor (1786–1840)}} {{Infobox artist | name = Hermann Ernst Freund | image = Hermann Ernst Freund.jpg | image_size = | caption = Portrait of Freund by [[Christian Albrecht Jensen]] (1818–20) | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1786|10|15|df=yes}} | birth_place = [[Uthlede]], near [[Bremen]], [[Holy Roman Empire]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|1840|6|30|1786|10|15|df=yes}} | death_place = [[Copenhagen]], Denmark | resting_place = [[Assistens Cemetery (Copenhagen)|Assistens Cemetery]], Copenhagen | known_for = [[Sculpture]] | training = [[Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts]] | movement = [[Danish Golden Age]], [[Neoclassicism]] | notable_works = | patrons = | awards = }}
'''Hermann Ernst Freund''' (15 October 1786 – 30 June 1840) was a German-born Danish sculptor of the [[Danish Golden Age]]. Trained at the [[Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts]], he spent about a decade in Rome as one of [[Bertel Thorvaldsen]]’s closest collaborators before becoming professor of sculpture in Copenhagen. Freund is particularly known for his sculptures inspired by [[Nordic mythology]], including a series of statuettes of Norse gods, the large ''Ragnarok'' frieze designed for [[Christiansborg Palace]] and a number of grave monuments and portrait busts in a refined classical style.<ref>[http://www.gravsted.dk/person.php?navn=hermannernstfreund "Hermann Ernst Freund"], Gravsted.dk. {{in lang|da}} Retrieved 29 November 2025.</ref><ref name=DSD>{{cite web |last=Munk |first=Jens Peter |title=Hermann Ernst Freund |website=Lex.dk |publisher=Den Store Danske |language=da |url=https://lex.dk/Hermann_Ernst_Freund |access-date=29 November 2025}}</ref>
==Biography== [[File:Hermann Ernst Freund (1835 portraits).jpg|thumb|right|Hermann Ernst Freund portrayed by [[Christian Albrecht Jensen]], 1835, [[Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek]]]]
Freund was born in Uthlede near [[Bremen]] in the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. Originally trained as a smith, he later turned to engraving and gem carving before entering the [[Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts|Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts]] in Copenhagen in 1805.<ref name=Odense>{{cite web |last=Lund Larsen |first=Tove |title=Billedhuggeren H.E. Freunds arbejder på Fyn |website=Museum Odense |language=da |url=https://museumodense.dk/udgivelser/billedhuggeren-h-e-freunds-arbejder-paa-fyn/ |access-date=29 November 2025}}</ref> He applied for and obtained Danish citizenship in 1811 and completed his studies with the Academy’s major travel scholarship, which enabled him to continue his training in Italy.<ref name=Odense/>
===Roman period and Nordic themes=== Freund arrived in Rome in 1818 and worked there for around ten years in [[Bertel Thorvaldsen]]’s studio, where he assisted on large sculptural commissions destined for Christiansborg and the [[Church of Our Lady (Copenhagen)|Church of Our Lady]] in Copenhagen.<ref name=Odense/><ref name=DSD/> Despite the close collaboration, his own work gradually took a different direction, combining classical form with subjects drawn from Nordic myth.
In Rome he modelled a series of works based on [[Norse gods|Norse deities]], including statuettes of [[Loki]] (c. 1822), [[Odin]] (model 1825–1827, cast in bronze 1827) and [[Thor]] (Academy presentation piece, 1829).<ref name=DSD/> In 1822 he won first prize in a Copenhagen competition for compositions on Nordic mythological themes with the relief ''Mimir and Balder Consult the Norns'', later acquired by the [[Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek]].<ref name=Perspective>{{cite journal |last=Langer |first=Johnni |title=Unveiling the Destiny of a Nation: The representations of Norns in Danish Art (1780–1850) |journal=Perspective: Journal of the National Gallery of Denmark |date=January 2021 |url=https://www.perspectivejournal.dk/en/unveiling-the-destiny-of-a-nation-the-representations-of-norns-in-danish-art-1780-1850/ |access-date=29 November 2025}}</ref> These works made Freund one of the earliest Danish sculptors to develop a systematic sculptural imagery based on Nordic mythology, which contemporary critics associated with emerging currents of romantic nationalism.<ref name=Perspective/>
===Return to Copenhagen and the ''Ragnarok'' frieze=== Freund returned to Copenhagen in 1828. Among the commissions he pursued on his return was an extensive frieze with scenes from the [[Ragnarök|''Ragnarok'']] myth cycle, designed for the interior of [[Christiansborg Palace]] and begun while he was still in Rome.<ref name=DSD/> The ambitious project occupied him for many years but was not completed in his lifetime. A reduced version of the ''Ragnarok'' frieze was finally installed at Christiansborg in 1841, after Freund’s death, and completed by his pupils and colleagues [[Herman Wilhelm Bissen]] and [[Georg Christian Freund]]. The work was destroyed in the fire that consumed Christiansborg in 1884, although parts of the composition could later be reconstructed on the basis of surviving casts and drawings.<ref name=DSD/> A plaster cast of a section of the frieze is held by the [[Statens Museum for Kunst]].<ref name=kulturarv>{{cite web |last=Munk |first=Jens Peter |title=Hermann Ernst Freund |website=Kunstindeks Danmark & Weilbachs kunstnerleksikon |publisher=Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen |language=da |url=https://www.kulturarv.dk/kid/VisKunstner.do?kunstnerId=2240 |access-date=29 November 2025 |archive-date=30 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930081426/https://www.kulturarv.dk/kid/VisKunstner.do?kunstnerId=2240 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Freund also prepared models for figures of the twelve apostles for the [[Church of Our Lady (Copenhagen)|Church of Our Lady]] in Copenhagen, although the final commission for the church’s sculptural decoration went to Thorvaldsen.<ref name=Odense/>
===Professor and later work=== In 1829 Freund was appointed professor of sculpture at the [[Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts]], a position he held until his death in 1840.<ref name=DSD/> His official residence, the historic property Materialgården in central Copenhagen, was converted by Freund into a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk: rooms, furniture and household objects were designed in a consistent [[Pompeian styles|Pompeian style]], inspired by excavations he had seen in [[Herculaneum]] and [[Pompeii]]. The decorative painting and much of the interior program were carried out in collaboration with younger artists such as [[Georg Hilker]], [[Heinrich Eddelien]], [[Constantin Hansen]] and [[Christen Købke]].<ref name=DSD/><ref name=Odense/>
During the 1830s, when large state commissions were relatively few, Freund earned much of his living from decorative works and from gravestones and memorial monuments, several of them for churches and churchyards on the Danish island of Funen, including the baptismal font and a grave monument in [[Faaborg Church]] and memorials in [[Odense]].<ref name=Odense/> His gravestones and grave reliefs are characterised in contemporary and later descriptions as technically precise works in a classical idiom, while his portrait busts were praised for their close characterisation of the sitter.<ref name=DSD/>
Freund died in Copenhagen on 30 June 1840 and was buried at [[Assistens Cemetery (Copenhagen)|Assistens Cemetery]].<ref>[http://www.gravsted.dk/person.php?navn=hermannernstfreund "Hermann Ernst Freund"], Gravsted.dk. {{in lang|da}} Retrieved 29 November 2025.</ref> The largest single collection of his sculptures, including many of his mythological works and portrait pieces, is held by the [[Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek]] in Copenhagen.<ref name=DSD/><ref name=kulturarv/>
==Gallery==
<gallery class="center" widths=150px heights=190> File:Thor (1829) by H. E. Freund.jpg|''Thor'' (1829), marble statuette File:Nordenskirker Faaborg17.jpg|Baptismal font in Faaborg Church File:Odin (1825-1827) by H. E. Freund.jpg|''Odin'' (model c. 1825–1827, bronze 1827) File:Lars Pedersen af Sæbyes gravminde.jpg|Memorial for Jens Pedersen at [[Sæby Church, Lejre Municipality|Sæby Church]], Hornsherred (1833) </gallery> [[File:Fate.jpg|thumb|''Skæbnens gudinde'' (''Fate''), sculpture by Hermann Ernst Freund at the [[Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek]]]]
==See also== * [[Danish sculpture]] * [[Mimir and Balder Consult the Norns]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Hermann Ernst Freund}} * [http://www.germanicmythology.com/works/FreundArt.html Images of the ''Ragnarok'' frieze]
{{Danish Golden Age}}
{{Authority control (arts)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freund, Hermann Ernst}} [[Category:1786 births]] [[Category:1840 deaths]] [[Category:Sculptors from Copenhagen]] [[Category:Artists from Bremen (city)]] [[Category:Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni]] [[Category:19th-century Danish sculptors]] [[Category:Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire to Denmark–Norway]] [[Category:Academic staff of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts]] [[Category:Danish male sculptors]] [[Category:19th-century Danish male artists]] [[Category:Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire]]