Studie efter Bissens skulptur Nymfen Echo 1881

Niels Larsen Stevns made this sketch after Bissen's sculpture Nymfen Echo. It is likely that Stevns, a Danish artist born in 1864, would have encountered Bissen’s sculpture through the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Here, students trained by copying plaster casts of antique sculptures, considered essential to the academic style. Echo, the nymph of Greek mythology, was punished by Hera for her talkativeness, only able to repeat the words of others. This could have resonated with the students, whose creativity was constrained through the rigid, institutional setting. But it also suggests the importance of tradition to the academy. The visual codes emphasize the importance of line and form, the way these sketches were foundational to academic training. As art historians, we look to the archives of academies to find out more about this. We analyze class schedules, student records, and instructors' notes, gaining insights into how art education shapes artistic production. Art, after all, is contingent on its social and institutional context.