Armchair with Sphinx in Pompeian Style

The Danish sculptor Hermann Ernst Freund (1786-1840) on the widespread movement of neoclassical interior and design in Denmark at the beginning of the 19th century. At the end of 1828, Freund returned from Italy to take up the vacant chair of sculpture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He had then been abroad for over 11 years, and his native land wanted him back. For no less than 10 years he had been Bertel Thorvaldsen’s closest pupil, collaborator and colleague in Rome. To return from the international, artistic atmosphere of Rome to the small city of Copenhagen was not something that attracted him, worse than that, it was deeply abhorrent to him.

As an official residence, Freund took over the apartment in Materialgaarden off Frederiksholms Kanal (see the painting by Christen Koebke), which had been the home of his predecessor as Professor of Sculpture, Nicolai Dajon. During the following years, he created here a home not only for him and his family, but also for the many young artist friends who became frequent visitors and primarily helped him create a tolerable framework around life in Copenhagen. He called it "Memories of a Better Place: I would have liked to have had a wider sphere of activity beneath the beautiful skies of Italy - instead of which I seek to create a little Italy around me beneath the cold, misty sky of the north - much is required for this - but a child is amused by small things, and I have not grown old and philistine”.

Only a few examples of this iconic armchair are known today - one in the collection of the Danish Museum of Decorative Art. The design of the chairs remains close to the Classical pattern with quite straight, smooth armrests and a heavy seat rail. In this it differs from the numerous earlier or contemporary armchairs with sphinxes, several variants of which were made for instance by Jacob in Paris. Alongside the klismos chair and the curule chair, the sphinx chair became one of the most popular antique-inspired chairs during the Empire period. While others almost hide the sphinx behind deep upholstered seat cushions, Freund’s chair possesses the sculptural qualities that much of the furniture of antiquity also possessed. The fully and exquisitely carved Sphinxes and the impressive sweep from the backrest to the back of the legs is a reminiscence of models found in Pompeji and Herculaneum just a few decades before.

From the memories of his son Victor Freund we know, that his father worked together with two craftsmen making furniture after his designs for him. One was the wood carver Alexander Wahl, "who could completely satisfy him with the way in which he created sphinxes, animals legs and other objects with which the furniture was provided" As a cabinet-maker, Freund used a distant relative, Georg Wilms, who was praised for his ability to follow the artist idea and design in every detail.

Literature:

•  Gelfer-Jorgensen, Mirjam, The Dream of a Golden Age, Danish Neo-Classical Furniture 1790-1850, Rhodos Publisher, 2004.

1.  Gelfer-Jorgensen, Mirjam, Herculanum paa Sjaelland, Klassicisme og nyantik i dansk möbeltradition, Rhodos Publisher 1988.