Nationality Danish Movement Naturalism | Name Louis Hasselriis Known for Sculpture | |
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Born 12 January 1844 ( 1844-01-12 ) Hillerod, Denmark Died May 20, 1912, Frederiksberg, Denmark Education Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts | ||
Louis Hasselriis (12 January 1844 – 20 May 1912) was a Danish sculptor known for his public statuary.
Biography
He studied under Herman Wilhelm Bissen. From 1869 and for the rest of his life he lived in Rome, but retained strong links with his homeland and also with the USA. In Denmark he created a statue of William Shakespeare for Elsinore and memorials to national heroes such as Peder Griffenfeld and Søren Kierkegaard, both in Copenhagen. Versions of Hasselriis' statue of Hans Christian Andersen exist in Odense and in New Jersey.
His memorial to Heinrich Heine marks the poet's grave in Montparnasse cemetery in Paris. A full size statue of the German-Jewish poet was also created for Empress Elizabeth of Austria. After her death it was removed from its original location by the antisemitic Kaiser Wilhelm II, and was rejected when offered to the city of Hamburg. With the rise of the Nazis, it was moved out of Germany to be erected in the Jardin d'acclimatation du Mourillon, Toulon. Though it survived the war, other Hasselriis statues were melted down to make munitions.