Frederik Christian Willerup
{{Short description|Danish sculptor}}
File:Fr. Chr. Willerup og Anne D. Kisby med deres døtre Ane Cathrine og Magdalene.jpg: Frederik Christian Willerup and Anne D. Kisby with their daughters Ane Cathrine and Magdalene.]]
Frederik Christian Willerup (5 February 1742 - 7 May 1819) was a Danish sculptor who worked at the Royal Danish Dockyard on Holmen in Copenhagen. He lived most of his life in Denmark-Norway.
Biography
File:F.C.Willerups skitsebog.jpg's's figurehead.]]
Willerup was born on 5 February 1742 in Copenhagen, the son of Andreas Willerup and Anna Cathrine Holm, He was married to Anne Dorthea Kisbye )1759-1836).
Willerup worked as the navy's sculptor at the Royal Danish Shipyard from 1776. He was responsible for creating figureheads, gallery ornamentation and other ornamental features for the ships constructed at the shipyard.{{cite web|url=https://arkivet.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/personer/f-c-willerup|title=Thorgeir Guðmundsson|language=Danish|website=Dansk Biografisk Leksikon|access-date=16 June 2022}}
He also made figureheads and ornaments for private shipowners, for instance at Larsens Plads, where a young Bertel Thorvaldsen and his father Gotskalk Thorvaldsen also worked. Thorvaldsen carved a wooden relief for a gate of a rider on horseback (now in Thorvaldsens Museum), after Willerup's drawing. Without the model's knowledge, Thorvaldsen also executed a portrait of Willerup in 1796. According to Just Mathias Thiele's Thorvaldsen biography (Vol. III, p. 50), Willerup had requested "a small work in remembrance" from his young colleague, before Thorvaldsen's departure for Rome. Thorvaldsen did not immediately seem to have complied with the request, but after his departure the bust was found in a box with the inscription: "for Willerup". The portrait is not known today.
Other works by Willerup include four allegorical sculptures of "The Four Winds" for the new Knippel Bridge in Copenhagen. They are now in the collection of the Museum of Copenhagen.{{cite web|url=https://www.chrarkiv.dk/h-r/knippelsbro/|title=Knippelsbro|language=Danish|publisher=Christianshavns Lokalhistoriske Forening|access-date=16 June 2022}}
File:Østenvinden fra Knippelsbro.jpg|The East Wind
File:Museum of Copenhagen - The North Wind.jpg|The North Wind
File:Museum of Copenhagen - The South Wind.jpg|The South Wind.
File:Museum of Copenhagen - The West Wind.jpg|The West Wind
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Frederik Christian Willerup}}
- [https://www.geni.com/people/Frederik-Christian-Willerup/6000000020903846183 Frederik Christian Willerup] at geni.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willerup, Frederik}}
Category:18th-century Danish sculptors
Category:19th-century Danish sculptors