Exhibited: The Nivaagaard Collection, “Venskabsportrætter fra Rom”, 2016, Cat. No. 1, mentioned p. 18, ill. p. 18.

Provenance: Circolo Scandinavo / Skandinavisk Forening i Rom (Inv. No. AI 36)

After receiving the Norwegian government's travel grant, the Norwegian sculptor Hans Hansen travelled to Copenhagen in 1856 to study at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Here, he became a student of the sculptor Herman Wilhelm Bissen (1798–1868) and alongside his studies, Hansen assisted Bissen in his studio. It was here he got to know his teacher's young son, Vilhelm Bissen.

An order for two busts; one of the Swedish King Oscar I (1799–1859) and one of Crown Prince Karl XV (1826–1872), made the first period of Hansen's year-long stay in Rome (1851–58) possible. Through the Scandinavian artist community in Rome, Hansen came into contact with several skilled Danish and Swedish sculptors, and he enjoyed practicing his copies of Rome's ancient sculptures. When Hansen failed to have his grant renewed, he began to suffer from malnutrition due to his poor living conditions, and he was in periods very ill from 1856 until his death in 1858. His financial situation became more and more disastrous, all while the illness worsened. In the present portrait from the beginning of April, Bissen has drawn Hansen shortly before his early death. In the portrait we see Hansen in profile, looking down with a distant gaze, reflecting the Norwegian sculptor's fragile life at the time.