Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum 502 West Water Street Decorah Iowa 52101
Notes:
Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, 2011.
(On front of near base, incised:) TERJE VIKEN (On back, impressed:) Made expecially for Normanden Publ(...illegible) Grand Forks, N.D. by S. Asbjørnsen
The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.
Summary:
Bust of a bearded sailor or fisherman with cap. Based on "Terje Vigen" (or Viken), a poem by Henrik Ibsen published in 1862. The story takes place during the Napoleonic Wars (1807-1814). Terje, from Grimstad, Norway, tries to run an English blockage in a small rowboat in order to smuggle food from Denmark to feed his starving family. He is captured and sent to prison in England. When the war is over and he is released in 1814, he returns home to find that his family has died of hunger. Years later, he rescues at sea an English Lord, his wife, and daughter. The Lord was the commander of the ship that had captured him and now Terje is in a position to revenge his own wife and daughter.