(1.1) In 1852 Andersen was painted by a Danish contemporary of his, Frederik Ludvig Storch, who like Andersen also hailed from Funen and had then made a career abroad. Storch had spent 21 years in Munich, and Andersen had already got to know him in Dresden in 1834, renewing the acquaintance in Munich in 1840. The picture shows the international view of Andersen: a person of depth and stature. There is intensity and a hint of the demonic about the portrait. (HCAs Hus) Back to Document >

(1.2) This undated daguerreotype is from almost the same time as Storch's painting of Andersen, presumably the late 1840s. Andersen is here wearing a decoration which might be either the Order of Dannebrog, which he received in 1846, or the Swedish Order of the North Star, which he was awarded in 1848. It is the oldest extant "objective" portrait of Andersen, who, enthusiastic about all technical progress as he was, immediately set about having his features preserved for posterity with the help of this new technique. It was also part of his everlasting quest for his own identity, which he sought in the 150 or so photographs that were taken of him over the years. (HCAsHus) Back to Document >

(1.3) Andersen was aware at an early age that his life story was just as fantastic a fairy tale as the ones he made up. Even as a young man he was fond of telling about aspects of his life in surroundings in which he believed it could open doors for him. And biographical introductions to his work begin to appear in France and Germany as early as the 1830s, attracting attention to the young Danish writer. Andersen personally believed that his life would be the best illustration to his work. Here we see Das Marchen meines Lebens ohne Dichtung alongside the English translation, The True Story of My Life. The book below them is Mit Livs Eventyr. (HCAs Hus) Back to Document >

(1.4) It is secluded provincial idyll that is expressed in this coloured drawing of Odense. The gouache was done by a teacher at Odense Cathedral School, J.H.T. Hanck, who was the son-in-law of the Odense printer and newspaper publisher Iversen. In the 1820s and beginning of the 1830s, the Iversen and Hanck families were Andersen's regular contacts in the Odense he had leH, but with which he nevertheless continued to keep in touch, also paying the occasional visit. Hanck's daughter, Henriette (Jette), became one of Andersen's loyal female correspondents. The gouache, a giH from Hanck to Andersen, bears the inscription "Odense, 26th January 1922. The memory of familiar fields unites with the memory of absent friends who remember you with devotion! JHT Hanck". (HCAs Hus) Back to Document >

(1.5) In summer 1835, Andersen went on a journey taking him to the mansion of Lykkesholm in southeast Funen, Odense and the west Zealand town of Sor0, where as so often before, he visited his 16-years-older fellow writer B.S. Ingemann. During his stay in Odense, he was given this gouache of Odense's main square, Flakhaven, by J.H.T. Hanck, whose own work it was. To the left of the picture can be seen the town hall with the main guardhouse, in the centre a former bishop's residence (Beldenaks Gard) from the early 16th century, and behind it the Cathedral, St. Knud's Church. On the right the town's principal well. Of the buildings seen in the picture, only the Cathedral stands today. (H.C. Andersen's Album. Roval Library). Back to Document >

(1.6) In a letter to his friend Jette Hanck, Andersen suggested to her that she should ask her father, J.H.T. Hanck, to do a drawing of the writer's childhood home in Munkem011estrEede. There is some uncertainty as to exactly where Andersen was born. A later tradition has pointed to the house in Hans Jensensstr£ede which now forms part of the museum H.C. Andersens Hus. However, the little house in Munkem011estrEede is authentic. The family lived here from 1807 to 1819. It was a house containing three singleroom flats that were let out. Today, this is also a museum known as H.C. Andersens barndomshiem (H.C. Andersen's Childhood Home). The gouache bears the inscription: "20.11.36. The writer's nest in the Eilschouwsboliger [the almshouses on the other side of the little street] in Odense". (HCAs Hus) Back to Document >

(1.7) Andersen was bitten by the theatre even while living in Odense. He played with a puppet theatre at home, his father read comedies by Ludvig Holberg to him, and he also went to the real theatre. However, it was the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen that was the great draw, and when in 1819 at the age of 14 he left Odense for the capital, he made a beeline for the Royal Theatre, where for the next three years he endeavoured to gain a foothold. As an author, he wrote for the theatre right from his earliest days until his final years. It is his great experience of the theatre that lies behind the scenic and dramatic form of his fairy tales. (HCAs Hus) Back to Document >

 

(1.8) The Little Mermaid has become as much the tourist icon tor Copenhagen as is the Einel Tower for Paris or J0rn Utzon's Opera House for Sidney. Everyone knows Edvard Eriksen's statue of the mermaid at Langelinie in Copenhagen, so here instead are three picture fantasies of Andersen's mermaid: the classic Danish Andersen illustrator Vilhelm Pedersen's tender drawing of the mermaid and the prince, the Russian scene painter Oskar Klever's demonic fantasy of the mermaid's agonising visit to the realm of the sea witch, and finally the mermaid as the Disney Studios think she should look. Back to Document >

(1.9) In Copenhagen, the Collin family home became Andersen's second home. Jonas Collin was a prominent civil servant (Deputy for Finance, Co-Director of the Royal Theatre and Secretary for the Ad Usus Publicos Foundation (the royal fund for support to artists and scholars) in the days of King Frederik Vl. It was he who arranged to send Andersen the young theatre aspirant to school in Slagelse, 10 and in addition to being his "guardian" and paternal patron, he looked after his finances. Collin's son Edvard later undertook this latter task. The Collins' house close to Kongens Nytorv was Andersen's second home from th' end of the 1 820s and throughout the 1 830s. Andersen generously repaid the Collin family for their support, not least by making his friPnd Fdvard Collin his sole heir. (HCAs Hus) Back to Document >

The French critic Xavier Marmier (1808-92) played a crucial role in making Hans Christian Andersen's name known abroad. He visited Denmark in 1836, and Andersen met him. The result of the meeting was an article, "Vie d~un poete", which Marmier published in 1837 in the Revue de Paris together with a translation of Andersen's poem "The Dying Child". The article was reprinted many times, not least as an introduction to D. Soldi's widely sold edition of the fairy tales, Contes d'Andersen. It was in addition translated into German in 1837 and into Russian the following year. Back to Document >

(1.10) Hans Christian Andersen was the keenest traveller among the Danish writers of his day, and the one who went furthest afield. In all he spent several years of his life travelling abroad, in his later years accompanied, among others, by young members of the Collin family. It was into the home of this distinguished upperclass Copenhagen family that he was accepted as a boy, and it was this home he came to look on as his own despite a good many tensions and problems in relations between the impetuous and self-promoting proletarian Andersen and the cool, self assured Collins. From a journey in 1856 together with Edgar Collin, a German painter, Felix Schlesinger has caught this glimpse of ``Hans Christian Andersen and Edgar Collin at a Staging Post". It is Andersen standing on the left of the picture. Back to Document >

(1.11) The literary critic Georg Brandes (1842-1927) became the dominant figure in the cultural debate and the leader of the new literary fashion of the 1870s and 1880s known as the "Modern Break- through". As a young critic he met the elderly Hans Christian Andersen and in 1869 wrote a lively and penetrat ing article on him in Illustreret Tidende, an article which as a presentation of Andersen and his fairy tales is still well worth reading. In writing it, Brandes was making the first contribution to Andersen research. His characterisation of Andersen's narrative style is unsurpassed. Back to Document >

(1.12) In the years following his prolonged grand tour 1833-34, Andersen fell very strongly that he would be forced to go abroad again to find a springboard for his further development. In 1840 he succeeded in ob taining the funds for this, leaving on the journey that was to take hinn furthest away, to Germany, Austria, Italy, Malta, Greece, Turkey (Con stantinople), along the Danube with glimpses of the bordering Balkan countries, through Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Prague and teach through Germany. The journey resulted in the brilliant travel account A Poet's EIazaar. (1842) Back to Document >

(1.13) Andersen often amused himself by making fantastic paper cuts, not all of which were in. tended for children in the families he visited. Some of them, such as the one shown here, are large-scale inventive compositions, a whole fairy tale world in themselves or perhaps an indication of his most hidden dream world? Andersen gave this paper clip to a bazaar which the Students' Union organised in Copenhagen for the benefit of the relatives of soldiers who fell in the Dano-German war of 1864. On the centre panel Andersen has written "This paper cut is rather dear/ priced at half a Rigsdaler/ But it is a whole cut-out fairy tale/ And your kind heart will pay". In fact it sold for twice as much: 1 Rigsdaler (corresponding now to about £15.) Back to Document >

(1.14) During his travels in the 1830s and early 1840s, Andersen produced a large number of drawings of what he saw on his way for instance this drawing from Rome bearing the inscription "Villa Borghesa, where we celebrated Christmas 1833". In his diary for 24 December 1833 he writes: "No premises could be put at our disposal in the city, as it was such a sacred festival, and we wanted to sing; so we found a place outside in the huge house in the garden of the Villa Borghese, close to the amphitheatre near the pine forest; some of us went out there already in the morning to arrange the party (...) I had decorated the table with a garland of flowers and on each person's plate there was a garland of ivy to put in their hair, and there were roses on the ladies' plates. We started inside by the Christmas tree, which was a splendid big laurel tree hung with orannes and oresents (...). Back to Document >

(1.15) Andersen's growing fame led to all kinds of portraits. The painters painted and drew him, sculptors modelled him, and fascinated as he was with new techniques, he allowed himself to be photographed countless times. There are over 150 photographs of Andersen altogether. There are even stereoscopic pictures among them, and some he had made into visiting cards. This photograph is from the mid 1860s and was taken by G. Rosenkilde, who produced large numbers of photographs of well-known artists, politicians etc. Beneath the picture Andersen has written: "The shooting star of our earthly life/ is, from a mother's heart/ To fly up to God." Back to Document >