Robert Julius Tommy Jacobsen (4 June 1912 – 26 January 1993) was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and painter. The Danish

Robert Award The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, hono ...

is named in his honor.

Biography

Jacobsen was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. He was self-taught as a sculptor. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he worked with Danish modernist artists such as

Asger Jorn Asger Oluf Jorn (3 March 1914 – 1 May 1973) was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International. He was born in Vejrum, in the northwest c ...

, Carl-Henning Pedersen and Egill Jacobsen. They participated in the circle around the journal ''Helhesten'' and would later come to make up the COBRA-movement. Although Jacobsen had a connection with the CoBrA artists, but he never was a member of their group. In this period he created massive granite and sandstone structures which he called "Mythical Creatures" (Danish: ''Fabeldyr ''). In the late 1940s, he creates a group of sculptures which he called "Dolls" (Danish: ''Dukkerne''). He traveled to France with his colleague

Richard Mortensen Richard Mortensen (23 October 1910 – 6 January 1993) was a Danish painter. Biography Richard Strange Mortensen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He studied between 1931 and 1932 at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. Influenced by the ...

and lived there from 1947–69. During his time in France he began creating sculptures in cast iron. In France he received the nickname "Gros Robert" (Danish:''Store Robert'').Drop Store Robert
Politiken From 1962–81, he was a professor at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (german: Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, ...

('' Kunstakademie der Bildenden Künste'') in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. In 1969 he moved to Tågelund, west of

Egtved Egtved is a village with a population of 2,446 (as of 1 January 2022) near Vejle, Denmark in Vejle municipality in the Denmark, Danish Region of Southern Denmark. Nearby is Tørskind Gravel Pit, a sculpture park. The village has a Romanesque arc ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

. From 1976 to 1985 he was professor at the

Royal Danish Academy of Art The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts ( da, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - Billedkunst Skolerne) has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark. History The Royal Dani ...

, Copenhagen. From 1986 to 1991 he worked with Jean Clareboudt to create a sculpture park at Tørskind Gravel Pit near Egtved and

Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality ('' kommune'') and th ...

. He also worked closely together with his son-in-law and artistic assistant, Bernard Leauté. Robert Jacobsen died in 1993, aged 80, at home in Tågelund. He was buried at Vestre Cemetery (Danish:''Vestre Kirkegård'') in Copenhagen.

Awards

Jacobsen was awarded the Thorvaldsen Medal in 1967. He was made an honorary member of the Association of Craftsmen in Copenhagen in 1973. In 1974 he was awarded the

Prince Eugen Medal The Prince Eugen Medal ( sv, Prins Eugen-medaljen) is a medal conferred by the King of Sweden for "outstanding artistic achievement". The medal was established in 1945 by the then King of Sweden, Gustaf V, in connection with the eightieth birthd ...

by the King of Sweden. He became a Commander of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1983. The Robert Awards (Danish: ''Robert Prisen'') have been awarded annually since 1984 by the Danish Film Academy. The awards are named after Robert Jacobsen who was the statuette's designer. Since 1993, the Robert Jacobsen Prize of the Würth Foundation has been awarded to contemporary visual artists to commemorate the artist. The prize is endowed with EUR 50,000.

Artwork

Robert Jacobsen's sculptures are represented at numerous museums of modern art internationally. *Musee d'Art Wallon (Liege, Belgium) *Museo de Arte Moderna (São Paulo, Brazil) *Von der Heydt Museum (Wuppertal, Germany) *Wilhelm Hack Museum (Ludwigshafen, Germany) *Lembruck Museum (Duisburg, Germany) *Sculptors Museum (Glaskasten, Marl, Germany) *"Kunsthalle" exhibition hall Kiel (Kiel, Germany) *Neue Pinakothek, (Munich, Germany) *town gallery Lenbachhouse (Munich, Germany) *"Kunsthalle" exhibition hall Emden donation Henri Nannen (Emden, Germany) *Didrichsenin taidemuseo (Helsinki, Finland) *Musee National d'Art Modern (Paris, France) *Centre Pompidou (Paris, France) *Musee de Peinture et de Sculpture (Grenoble, France) *Musee des Beaux-Art (Rennes, France) * Fond National d'Art Contemporain (France) *Musee Rodin Paris (France) *Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) *Kröller-Müller Museum (Otterlo, The Netherlands) *Nationalgalerie (Oslo, Norway) *Moderna Museet (Stockholm, Sweden) *Musee des Beaux-Art (La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland) *Magyar Nemzeti Muzeum (Budapest, Hungary) *Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute (Pittsburgh, USA) *Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, USA) *Fondation Herzog (New York, USA) *Carnegie Institute (Philadelphia, USA)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobsen, Robert 1912 births 1993 deaths Modern sculptors 20th-century Danish painters Artists from Copenhagen Abstract painters Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts faculty Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog 20th-century Danish sculptors Male sculptors Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Danish watercolourists Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Recipients of the Thorvaldsen Medal Recipients of the Prince Eugen Medal Danish male artists Burials at Vestre Cemetery, Copenhagen 20th-century Danish male artists