Anders Svor

{{Infobox person

| name = Anders Svor

| image =

| caption = Bust of Anders Svor at the Anders Svor Museum

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1864|12|14|mf=yes}}

| birth_place = Hornindal, Norway

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1929|05|02|1864|12|14|mf=yes}}

| death_place = Oslo, Norway

| body_discovered = May 6, 1929

| burial_place= Hornindal Church

| occupation = Sculptor

}}

Anders Svor (December 14, 1864 – May 2, 1929) was a Norwegian sculptor.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Anders Svor |encyclopedia=Store norske leksikon |year=2020 |url=https://snl.no/Anders_Svor |language=Norwegian |accessdate=March 25, 2020}}{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Kokkin |first1=Jan |title=Anders Svor |encyclopedia=Norsk biografisk leksikon |year=2020 |url=https://nbl.snl.no/Anders_Svor |language=Norwegian |accessdate=March 25, 2020}} He was a realist influenced by Romanticism, and Auguste Rodin was also an important inspiration.{{cite news |last1=Hoem |first1=Edvard |title=Svor fram frå gløymsla |work=Klassekampen |date=June 25, 2014}} His work was also part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1924 Summer Olympics.{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/921161 |title=Anders Svor |work=Olympedia |accessdate=24 July 2020}}

Life

Svor was a farmer's son, the child of Rasmus Kristofer Svor (1835–1914) and Ragnhild Svor née Seljeset (1834–1902). He was born and raised at the Svor farm in Hornindal. Already as a boy he showed unusual abilities in wood carving, which would be the start of his artist life.

File:Anders Svor museum.JPG at Grodås in Hornindal]]

At the age of 17, he traveled to Kristiania (now Oslo), where he began as a woodcutter at the Hals Brothers piano factory. Later he became a student at the Royal Drawing School (now the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry), where he studied under Julius Middelthun. At the age of 21 he went to Copenhagen, where he became a student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and studied under Stephan Sinding and Vilhelm Bissen.

Svor lived for a time in Paris, but settled in Kristiania, where he had his studio and residence. He lived alone and died on May 2, 1929. He is buried at Hornindal Church.{{cite news |last1=Hofseth |first1=Emilie |title=Korleis Hornindal kyrkje er utforma |url=https://stryn.kyrkja.no/Portals/0/Filer/Kyrkjeklokka/2014/Kyrkjeklokka%202014%20-%203.pdf |accessdate=March 27, 2020 |work=Kyrkjeklokka |issue=3 |date=2014 |page=9}}

In his native Hornindal, the Anders Svor Museum was opened in the village of Grodås in 1953.{{cite book |last1=Taylor-Wilkie |first1=Doreen |last2=Bell |first2=Brian |title=Norway |date=1991 |publisher=APA Publications |location=Singapore |page=274}} It contains about 450 works by the artist.

Career

Svor participated in several art exhibitions in Kristiania, Copenhagen, Paris, and Chicago. Svor experienced his great breakthrough with his sculpture David. At an international art exhibition in Berlin in 1891, he received a gold medal for this work of art, a prestigious award. The statue was destroyed while being shipped from an exhibit in Chicago. Together with Sofus Madsen, Svor participated in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris with his sculpture Diskoskaster (Discus Thrower).{{cite web |title=Art Competitions at the 1924 Paris Summer Games: Mixed Sculpturing |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1924/ART/mixed-sculpturing.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418022014/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1924/ART/mixed-sculpturing.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 18, 2020 |website=SR/Olympic Sports |publisher=Sports Reference LLC |accessdate=March 28, 2020}}

In 1891 Svor won the competition for the Tordenskjold monument in Kristiania. However, he was unable to complete it, which was a difficult blow for the young artist. After his death, Svor's Tordenskiold-statuen (Tordenskjold Statue) was unveiled by King Olav V in Horten, and a copy was unveiled by Crown Prince Harald at Haakonsvern.Dag og Tid, January 2, 2014.

Regarding Svor's sculpture Bølgen (The Wave) exhibited at Skillebekk and Etter badet (After the Bath) outside Bislet Baths, the novelist Edvard Hoem wrote that he was struck by what the statues express; that they have "both excitement and grace." According to Hoem, Svor's work was overshadowed by the dominant sculptor Gustav Vigeland. The writer Morten Johan Svendsen writes that Svor's figurative imagery seems "both outdated and foreign today," while both Svendsen and the writer Inge Fænn believe that Svor was one of Norway's foremost sculptors after Vigeland.

Sculptures

{{multiple image

| align = right

| total_width = 500

| footer =

| footer_align = center

| image1 = Arbeiten des Bildhauers Anders Svor in Homindal. 03.jpg

| caption1 = Bolgen (The Wave)

| image2 = Anders Svor skulptur i hagen.JPG

| caption2 = Outdoor sculpture at the Anders Svor Museum

| image3 = Anders Svor Portrettbyste av Wollert Konow OB.F06142b.jpg

| caption3 = Bust of Wollert Konow

| image4 = Svend Foyn statue Tønsberg Norway 2015-09-25 01.jpg

| caption4 = Statue of Svend Foyn

}}

Tordenskiold-statuen (Tordenskjold Statue) at the Naval Officers Club ({{langx|no|Sjømilitære Samfund}}) in Horten, unveiled by King Olav V, copy at Haakonsvern unveiled by Crown Prince Harald
Bolgen (The Wave), a.k.a. Havfruefontenen (The Mermaid Fountain) at Skillebekk in Oslo
David, a prize-winning work at a competition in Berlin
Christian Michelsen and Oscar II at the Anders Svor Museum
Etter badet (After the Bath) at Bislet Baths in Oslo
Statue of Svend Foyn in Tønsberg
Bust of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Bust of Christian Michelsen
Bust of Henrik Ibsen
Bust of Wollert Konow
Bust of Fridtjof Nansen

Anders Svor

Life

Career

Sculptures

References

Further reading