Thorvald Jørgensen

Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen, Thorvald Jørgen's most prominent work

Thorvald Jørgensen (27 June 1867 - 15 May 1946) was a Danish architect, most known for his design of Christiansborg Palace, the seat of the Danish Parliament, after it had been destroyed in a fire. His other work mainly consists of churches. He was Royal Building Inspector from 1911 to 1938.

Biography

Thorval Jørgen was born on 27 June 1867 in Norsminde outside Aarhus. He completed a carpenter's apprenticeship in Aarhus in 1885 and then moved to Copenhagen where he was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts the same year, where he was taught by both Hans Jørgen Holm, Martin Nyrop, Ferdinand Meldahl and Albert Jensen. He graduated in 1889, won the Academy's large gold medal in 1893 for A church with rectory, and then worked for Hans Jørgen Holm on Overformynderiet in Copenhagen from 1892 to 1893. In 1892 he received the Academy's scholarship and over the next years travelled widely in Europe, particularly in Italy.

From the turn of the century he designed a number of churches in and around Copenhagen. His design of Brorson's Church was rewarded with the Eckersberg Medal.[1]

In 1905 he won the competition for the design of the new Christiansborg Palace after Christian Frederik Hansen's previous Christiansborg Palace had been destroyed in a fire. Construction started the next year but before the building was completed in 1928 after a prolonged and difficult political process, the design had changed considerable from Jørgensen's original winning proposal. It was met with strong criticism.

In 1911 Jørgensen was appointed Royal Building Inspector. The rest of his works work mainly included churches and public buildings but also a number of villas and country houses.

Style

With influence from Holm and Nyrop, his teachers from the Academy, Jørgen belonged to the Herholdt-Holmske group of Danish Historicist architects which relied on Medieval Danish architecture for inspiration, rather than Ferdinand Meldahl's more internationally inclined followers.[2]

Later he turned to Neo-Baroque (Christiansborg Palace) and Neoclassicism (Gentofte Town Hall). Hellerup Church shows influence from Jugendstil.

Selected buildings

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Thorvald Jørgensen". Gyldendal. Retrieved 2011-02-15.
  2. ↑ "Kirkens arkitekt og kunstnere". nordiskekirker.dk. Retrieved 2011-02-15.
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