Serial Number: RAF0873
Status: Display
Description:
Royal Copenhagen Polar Bear, production number 417, manufactured in 1935 - 1945, approximately 7 inches in lenght and a bit under 4 inches high with stamped Royal Copenhagen logo Artist Carl Johan Bonnesen
In the mid-19th-century, G.F. Hetsch, the artistic director of Royal Copenhagen, reportedly produced bisque porcelain characters such as Venus to complement his vases and candlesticks. But the first Royal Copenhagen figurines were not put on public display until the Paris World Fair of 1889. In fact, the Art Nouveau era was a particularly good time for both the firm and fans of figurines, as Royal Copenhagen designers created scores of adorable children and animals, as well as mythical figures such as satyrs.
Royal Copenhagen designers at the beginning of the 20th century included Knud Kyhn, Carl Johna Bonnesen and Gerhard Henning, who, between them, created many of the company’s most enduring figurines, from polar bears and monkeys to mischievous Pan characters. Another designer from this period was Felix Nylund, whose white porcelain figure of a mother clutching her child stood a full 21 inches tall.
Artist Carl Johan Bonnesen
Carl Johan Bonnesen (26 May 1868 – 13 December 1933) was a Danish sculptor. He was born on 26 May 1868 in Aalborg. He first trained to become a carpenter for two years before moving to Copenhagen where he was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1887. There he studied under Theobald Stein and Christian Carl Peters before graduating in 1889. He specialised in depictions of animals and exotic, primitive subjects as seen in the first sculpture he ever exhibited.
At the age of 22 in 1891 his first sculpture was acquired by the collector Heinrich Hirschsprung and cast in bronze (it is today exhibited in the garden by the Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen).
Reference Wikipedia
