The Snowdrop – Item #797 Caproni Collection

12 Inches High x 4.5 Inches Wide x 3.25 Inches Deep

Swedish artist Per Hasselberg (1850-1894) created the life-sized figure Snöklockan, or The Snowdrop, in 1881, and it is considered his most prominent work. It is also known as The Snowbell and The Spring Snowflake. First cast in plaster, Hasselberg exhibited the sculpture at the 1881 Paris Salon. Many copies and reductions were created afterwards. In 1883, the National Museum in Stockholm commissioned a marble copy, and later in 1900, a bronze copy was made for placement in a park in Stockholm. As the City Museum of Stockholm notes, this bronze reproduction was the first public sculpture in the city installed solely as a work of art. In an issue of London’s Studio International in 1898, one author writing about the work said “the artist has given form to all that is most charming in woman—innocence of heart and purity of mind,” and that The Snowdrop’s soul is “expressed in every line, in every curve of her graceful body.” While her hip swings out, the young female rests her weight on her right leg. Eyes closed, she has one hand in her hair that is pulled back loosely. The other hand touches the tattered piece of cloth wrapped around her upper abdomen. Although the detail is soft in the reduction, at the female’s feet are snowdrops, a type of flower, sculpted into the ground that surrounds her lower right leg. 

Artist: Per Hasselberg

Museum/Location: Mariatorget, Stockholm, Sweden, National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden, and Prince Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm, Sweden

Time Period: Modern, 1881

1911 Catalog ID # – 1568

Sources:

The City Museum of Stockholm, “Snöklockan (Spring Snowflake).” Skulptur.stockholm.se, http:///books?id=njk6AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false.