Out Like a Lamb

March came in like a lion, so it should go out like a lamb, right?

Choosing a lion from among the many prominent felines present at the 1893 World’s fair was quite easy for our post back on March 1. Finding a lamb for this accompanying end-of-the-month post has been a much more challenging hunt! We present here a photograph of the sculpture “Shepherdess” by Prof. V. Bissen, which one source described as “Mary & Her Little Lamb.”

Herman Vilhelm Bissen (1798-1868) was a Danish sculptor whose work can be seen in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek art museum in Copenhagen and at various locations around that city.

According to the Revised Catalog, Department of Fine Arts (Conkey, 1893), Prof. Bissen had two marble sculptures on display in the Denmark section (Gallery 73) of the Palace of Fine Arts: “A Girl Making Pottery” and “Danaide.” Hubert Howe Bancroft’s The Book of the Fair (Bancroft Co., 1893) offers that “in Denmark’s section the best of Danish art is represented … [with] unmistakable evidence of force and originality.” Bancroft comments on several works from Denmark, but is silent about those by Bissen.

Bissen’s “Shepherdess” appears to have been on display in the Danish Pavilion within the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building. A small part of background in the photographs shows some iron work characteristic of the great exhibition hall, and the columns and pedestal in the image match those shown in other images of the Danish Pavilion (see one example below).

Bissen’s sculpture “Arachne, The Spinner” also was on display in the pavilion. Here the kingdom of Denmark exhibited paintings, jewelry, gold and silver ware, decorative porcelains and terra cotta, laces, embroideries, carvings, and even a faithful reproduction of the living and work rooms of Hans Christian Anderson.

If you admire the work of Bissen and want to commemorate how fast the month of March seems to have passed by, you can bring home a plaster cast of his lion statuette from Glyptoteket.

REFERENCES

“Danish Taste and Handicraft” Photographs of the World’s Fair. Werner Co., 1894, p. 61.

Shepp’s World’s Fair Photographed. Globe Bible Publishing, 1893, p. 84.