The City of Copenhagen decided to give Icelanders a statue of Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) on the occasion of the 1874 national holiday and the 1000th anniversary of the settlement of Iceland. The statue was delivered on August 7, 1874, but was unveiled and inaugurated at Austurvöllur square on Thorvaldsen's birthday, November 19, 1875. The statue was the first outdoor work of art in Iceland and marked a turning point in the arts in Iceland and a turning point in the history of the city ​​planning of Reykjavík, but with its installation Austurvöllur was made 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 1874 national festival. Bertel's full name was Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen. His father, Gottskálk Þorvaldsson, was an Icelandic a woodcarver who moved to Denmark. His mother, Karen Dagnes, was Danish and Bertel grew up in Copenhagen, but spent most of his life in Rome. The photograph is made after a "Daguerre" type made by Aymard-Charles-Théodore Neubourg of Bertel Thorvaldsen in Rome outside his studio in 1843.

The book is accessible at baekur.is