Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 8.djvu/102

 260 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS boys, he has now frequented the Academy's school for six years already, where, always taciturn and silent, he stood by his drawing-board. His answer was features, and good-nature was in every expression. The picture shows us Albert as a candidate for confirmation. He is now seventeen years of age — not a very young age to ratify his baptismal compact ; his place at the dean's house is the last among the poor boys, for his knowledge is not sufficient to place him higher. There had just at that time been an account in the newspapers, that the pupil Thorwaldsen had gained the Academy's smaller medal for a bas-relief representing a "Cupid Reposing." "Is it your brother that has gained the medal?" inquired the dean. " It is myself," said Albert, and the clergyman looked kindly on him, placed him first among all the boys, and from that time always called him Monsieur Thorwaldsen. Oh! how deeply did that "Monsieur" then sound in his mind ! as he has often said since, it sounded far more powerfully than any title that kings could give him : he never afterward forgot it. In a small house in Aabeuraa — the street where Holberg lets his poor poets dwell — lived Albert Thorwaldsen with his parents, and divided his time between the study of art and assisting his father. The Academy's lesser gold was then the prize to be obtained for sculpture. Our artist was now twenty years of age ; his friends knew his abilities better than himself, and they compelled him to enter on the task. The subject proposed was, " Heliodorus Driven out of the Temple." We are now in Charlottenburg ; but the little chamber in which Thorwaldsen lately sat to make his sketch is empty, and he, chased by the demons of fear and distrust, hastens down the narrow back-stairs with the intention not to return. Nothing is accidental in the life of a great genius ; an apparent insignificance is a God's guiding finger. Thorwaldsen was to complete his task. Who is it that stops him on the dark stairs ? One of the professors just comes that way, speaks to him, questions, admonishes him. He returns, and in four hours the sketch is finished, and the gold medal won. This was on August 15, 1791. Count Ditlew de Reventlow, minister of state, saw the young artist's work, and became his protector ; he placed his own name at the head of a subscription that enabled Thorwaldsen to devote his time to the study of his art. Two years afterward the large gold medal was to be contended for at the Academy, the suc- cessful candidate thereby gaining the right to a travelling stipendium. Thor- waldsen was again the first ; but before he entered on his travels, it was deemed necessary to extend that knowledge which an indifferent education at school had left him in want of. He read, studied, and the Academy gave him its support ; ac- knowledgment smiled on him, a greater and more spiritual sphere lay open to him. A portrait figure stands now before us ; it is that of a Dane, the learned and severe Zoega, to whom the young artist is specially recommended, but who only sees in him a common talent ; whose words are only those of censure, and whose eye sees only a servile imitation of the antique in his works. Strictly honest in his judgment, according to his own ideas, is this man, who should be Thorwald- sen's guide.
 * ' yes " or " no," a nod or a shake of the head ; but mildness shone from his