Niels Hansen Jacobsen. 'The Mother Tongue', rare bronze figure group

Automatic translation from Danish.

Niels Hansen Jacobsen (1861-1941): 'The Motherland'. Figure group of patinated bronze. Signed NHJ 1903. H. 47. L. 33 cm. Weight approx. 8.9 kg. Inscription on the back: 'To: C. Barfoed Möller and Wife, 23-2-1890-23-2-1915. From: "Cirkel Ordenen"'.
The figure is a smaller version of the memorial 'The Motherland' erected in Skibelund Krat by Kongeåen near Vejen in 1903.
The strongly political sculpture group, 'The Motherland', is one of Niels Hansen Jacobsen's main works and was instrumental in making NHJ the preferred sculptor of southern Jutland. The monument commemorates two strong personalities from Southern Jutland, the historian A. D. Jørgensen and the poet Edvard Lembcke, both of whom were expelled from Southern Jutland in 1864 and who both died in 1897. It depicts a female personification of the Danish mother tongue, who places her hands in blessing on the portrait heads of the two men. Below it is the sentence: 'She puts every good and powerful word on our lips'.
The statuette of the Mother Tongue was mass-produced by Stender's publishing house in plaster and artificial stone for the homes of Danish-minded people. It is probably extremely rare in bronze.