Litteraturhistorikeren Vilhelm Andersen 1896

Anders Bundgaard created this small statue of Vilhelm Andersen, a historian of literature, using plaster. The casual gesture of Andersen's hand in his pocket, juxtaposed with the jacket slung over his shoulder, is a fascinating study in the psychology of portraiture. The hand tucked away speaks to a certain self-assuredness or perhaps a hint of guardedness. Consider the ancient Roman tradition of orators concealing a hand within their togas to suggest restraint. And then, the jacket—carelessly draped—echoes the 'contrapposto' stance, a motif stretching back to classical sculpture, where weight shift in the body conveys a sense of potential energy. Here, the weight of intellect perhaps? Bundgaard’s statue becomes a complex interplay of posture and symbolism, a reflection of not just Andersen, but the archetypes of intellectual representation throughout time. An emotional resonance continues to cycle and evolve.