The City of Copenhagen decided to give Icelanders a statue of Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) on the occasion of the National Day of 1874 and the 1000th anniversary of the settlement of Iceland. The statue was presented on 7 August 1874 and unveiled and inaugurated at Austurvöllur on Thorvaldsen's birthday, 19 November 1875. The statue was the first outdoor work of art in Iceland and marked a turning point in the history of the planning of Reykjavík, as its installation made Austurvöllur a public square. The Dane Carl Frederik Wilckens, who was the personal servant of the sculptor Thorvaldsen, wrote the book Træk af Thorvaldsens konstner- og omgangsliv which was published in Copenhagen in 1874 and the book was one of many gifts that the National Library received on the occasion of the National Day of 1874. Bertel's full name was Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen. His father was an Icelandic woodcarver, Gottskálk Þorvaldsson, who emigrated to Denmark. His mother, Karen Dagnes, was Danish and Bertel grew up in Copenhagen, but spent most of her life in Rome. The photograph is based on a "Daguerre" type that Aymard-Charles-Théodore Neubourg made of Bertel Thorvaldsen in Rome outside his studio in 1843.

The book is available at baekur.is