Tordenskjold 1830 - 1896

This is Franz Wilhelm Obermann's print of a statuette of Tordenskjold. It is held at the Statens Museum for Kunst. Tordenskjold was a Norwegian naval hero, ennobled by the King of Denmark-Norway for his service in the Great Northern War of the early 18th century. He embodied a kind of upward mobility that was central to the cultural project of nation-building. This print exemplifies how institutions, like the museum that owns it and the school that trained the artist, shape our understanding of the past. Obermann likely drew this from a plaster cast, itself a copy of a marble or bronze. The proliferation of such copies allowed patriotic imagery to circulate widely. Prints like these were often included in popular books. Understanding the social and institutional history of art objects gives us a richer understanding of the past. We might consider, for example, how the story of Tordenskjold was used to promote a particular vision of Norwegian identity.