Sigvald AsbjØrnsen

Sigvald Asbjørnsen (1867-1954)
"Osul Torrison"
Sculpture, ca. 1930
LFAC #796

Biography

Sigvald Asbjørnsen was born in Christiania (Oslo), Norway, October 19, 1867. He studied art with B. Bergslieu, Mathias Skeibrok and Middelthun in Norway. At the age of 16 he was awarded a stipend from King Oscar II to study at the Royal Academy in Oslo where he worked for five years. He emigrated to the United States in 1892, first working in Michigan where he received several important commissions for sculpture. He eventually moved to Chicago where he worked on the buildings for the World Columbian Exposition of 1893. The remainder of his professional career was spent in Chicago where he sculpted a number of public works which were sent to various localities in the United States. He received the St. Olaf medal in 1952 from Norway’s King Haakon VII. Asbjørnsen was married to Margaretha Stuhr, also from Norway, and they were the parents of three children. In the later years of his life, Asbjørnsen turned to painting pastel winter and summer landscapes. He died in 1954.

Asbjørnsen was primarily known as a sculptor. Some of his well-known commissions include the Leif Erikson statue in Humboldt Park (1901), Chicago; Louis Joliet for the Public Library in Joliet, IL; and, War and Soldiers’ Statue for the Sherman Monument, Washington, D.C. (1903). American statesmen he sculpted were the John R. Monaghan Monument, Spokane, WA; Wilber Fisk Sanders Statue, Helene, MT; and, the Hon. Robert William Moore Statue, Memphis, TN. He also crafted the following busts in bronze: Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Roosevelt, Edwin Westgaard, and John Anderson. He made medallions of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Ibsen, Grieg, and others. His sculptured relief bust of Roald Amundsen faces the Pacific Ocean in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA.

Asbjørnsen exhibited sculptures at the Art Institute of Chicago between 1897 and 1921. His sculptural work was also shown at the University of Minnesota exhibit, "The Divided Heart: Scandinavian Immigrant Artists, 1850-1950" in 1982.

Works by Asbjørnsen in Decorah include several sculptures owned by the Norwegian-American Museum. The plaques of Norwegian pioneer minister Ulrik Koren and his wife, Elisabeth Koren stand in the Washington Prairie Lutheran Church cemetery in rural Decorah.

The work by Asbjørnsen in the Fine Arts Collection is a bronze bust of Osul Torrison, of Manitowoc, WI, an early member of the Luther College Board of Trustees (1875-1884). Torrison’s eight sons attended Luther College. The bust was donated by the Torrison family in 1930. The bust has been placed on the Inventory of American Sculpture, National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution and the Catalogue of American Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Ref: Strand, A.E. A History of the Norwegians in Illinois. Chicago, IL: John Anderson Publishing Co., 1905; Sundby-Hansen, Harry. Norwegian Immigrant Contributions to America’s Making. New York, NY: International Press, 1921; Heitmann, Helen M. in From Fjord to Prairie: Norwegian-Americans in the Midwest, 1825-1975. Chicago, IL: Norwegian-American Immigration Anniversary Commission, 1976.

Updated 01/14/2009