The painter and sculptor J.F. Willumsen’s monument to Viggo Hørup (1841-1902) was erected in Kongens Have (The King’s Garden) in Copenhagen in 1908 at the suggestion of the daily newspaper Politiken. The radical politician is portrayed as a propagandist holding one of his inflammatory speeches to visitors to the gardens, near the King’s Gate on Gothersgade, which he had opened to the public as minister of transport in 1901.
The monument was the result of a competition arranged in 1906 on the initiative of, among others, the politician and cultural celebrity Edvard Brandes, who launched Politiken together with Hørup in 1884. J.F. Willumsen won with his distinctive work. He saw Hørup as a champion of the farmers, and he depicted, on a bronze relief on the granite pedestal of the statue, the story of the political development of the farmer, from the drudgery to the struggle for independence and the free farmer taking an active part in the social debate. The shape of the pedestal can be construed as a ploughshare.
The monument was blown up in 1945 just before Denmark’s liberation. What one sees today is a recast. The original bronze head is on display at J.F. Willumsen’s Museum in Frederikssund.
Last updated:: Wednesday, March 18, 2009
