Einar Utzon-Frank

Aksel (Axel) Einar (Ejnar) Utzon-Frank (30 March 1888 – 15 July 1955) was a Danish sculptor and professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. During his lifetime, he produced many sculptures, some of which stand as public monuments. Utzon-Frank was son of Jens Christian Frank and Anna Cathrine Utzon. Anna Cathrine was sister to the grandfather of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jørn Utzon.

Aphrodite at the Arboretum Zürich in Switzerland^[1]

Career

Einar Utzon-Frank was born in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen in 1888,^[2] the son of Jens Christian Frank and Anna Cathrine Utzon.^[3]

Utzon-Frank began his artistic life as a painter but changed direction to become a sculptor.^[4] He was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1906,^[5] where he became a close friend of the somewhat older Kai Nielsen. However, the two friends followed diverging paths through their creative careers, with Nielsen following a lush modernism in contrast to Utzon-Frank's clear, cool classical style which follows the tradition of Bertel Thorvaldsen.^[6]

From 1912 to 1913 Utzen-Frank travelled around Europe, visiting Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Florence, Rome, Naples, Paestum, Paris and later Italy, Greece and England,^[7] and many of the classical influences from his travels are evident in his work.

At the end of the 1930s he was commissioned to recast the Equestrian statue of Christian V — originally erected between 1687 and 1688 on Kongens Nytorv and made from gilded lead by Abraham-César Lamoureux^[8]— in bronze, which he did between 1939 and 1942.^[9] His work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics.^[10]

Academia

In 1918 at the age of 30, Utzon-Frank was appointed a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen, a post in which he remained until 1955.^[4] In his teaching, he laid emphasis on solid craftsmanship skills. He was a teacher and educator of great importance and came to dominate several generations of sculptors, including Henry Heerup, Sigrid Lütken, Janus Kamban, Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, Gestur Þorgrímsson^[11] and Douglas Robertson Bisset.^[12]

Private life

Utzon-Frank married Gerda Harriet Margrete Christensen on 4 December 1908.^[6] Their daughter Grete Utzon Frank was born on 8 February 1909 in Copenhagen, and she married painter and author William Flemming Bergsøe on 21 March 1930.^[13]

Works

His best-known works include:^[4]

• Knælende Aphrodite (1916)
• Atalante (1919), depicting the woman Atalanta from Greek mythology. This bronze statue is placed in the central park of Rådhusparken in Aarhus.
• Slangedræber, the Police Headquarters, Copenhagen (1924)
• Beatrice as poesiens genius, Dantesøjlen, Copenhagen (1924), sold in 2003 for 28,000 DKK^[14]
• Sarkofag for Frederik VIII, Roskilde Cathedral, Roskilde, Denmark
• Hamlet Memorial Grave, Marienlyst Park, Helsingør (1926)^[15]
• Erik of Pomerania (1926)
• Youth, Enghaveparken, Copenhagen (1933)
• The Weather Girls, Richshuset, Copenhagen (1936)
• Knud the Holy, Odense, Denmark (1944)
• Christian X (Equestrian statue), Sankt Annæ Plads, Copenhagen (1954)
• Thorvaldsen (1953)

See also

• Art of Denmark