Hermann Ernst Freund

Hermann Ernst Freund (* October 15, 1786 in Uthlede in Bremen, † June 30, 1840 in Copenhagen) was a Danish sculptor.

Friend attended the Academy in Copenhagen and went in 1820 to Rome, where he entered the studio Bertel Thorvaldsen. Here he had an important share of the work for the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen, the statue of Christ and the apostles.

But he also created some independent works: a Mercury, a shepherd girl that can drink a lamb, among other things, which invented happy and not run without subtlety, all show him as a pupil of Thorvaldsen.

In 1827 he returned to Copenhagen, where he became very busy as a teacher and conductor of the Kunstverein. In 1836 he completed the monument to the reformer Hans thousands in Viborg. His main work is the Ragnarökfries, who found a place in the 1841 Christiansborg Palace. It was a difficult task, the fantastic Nordic saga, the characters appear in which only wavering outlines, to embody plastic, and friend is the same has not met even less so than the classicizing Thorwaldsenschen forms are in conflict with the idea of the article. However, the composition has the advantage of an energetic dramatic effect. His nephew and pupil Georg Christian friend assisted from time to time at work. Friend died as a professor at the Copenhagen Academy on June 30, 1840.