Hendrik Christian Andersen (17 April 1872 in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

– 19 December 1940 in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

) was a

Norwegian-American Norwegian Americans ( nb, Norskamerikanere, nn, Norskamerikanarar) are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

and

urban planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, town ...

Background

Hendrik Andersen and John Briggs Potter in Florence

Andersen was born in

Bergen, Norway Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, secon ...

to parents Anders Andersen from Lærdal and Helene Monsine Monsen from Bergen. He emigrated as an infant with his family to

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

the following year. As a young man in Newport, Andersen began his work as a sculptor and learned to mingle among the city's wealthy elite, including serving as an art instructor for

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (January 9, 1875 – April 18, 1942) was an American sculptor, art patron and collector, and founder in 1931 of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. She was a prominent social figure and hostess, ...

.1757 – 1855 – Newport Mansions
at www.newportmansions.org In 1893, Andersen traveled to Europe to study art and eventually settled in Rome. There he ingratiated himself with other artists as well as a number of wealthy expatriate patrons and pursued his work.

The World City

Andersen's sculpture, paintings, and writings demonstrate a fondness for large monumental classically inspired pieces, which, he believed, stirred in the viewer a desire for self-improvement. Much of his work was done in contemplation of the single idea of designing a perfect "World City," filled with art, which would motivate humanity to achieve a near-Utopian state. His urban planning philosophy is evident in his 1913 ''A World Center of Communication''. This enormous tome (the text weighed over ten pounds) was written with

Ernest Hébrard Ernest Hébrard (1875–1933) was a French architect, archaeologist and urban planner, best known for his urban plan for the center of Thessaloniki, Greece, after the great fire of 1917. Background Hebrard studied at the École des Beaux- ...

and grew out of Andersen's earlier writing, ''The Fountain of Life.'' Central to the work was Andersen's belief that art, more specifically monumental

Beaux-Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...

, could bring about world peace and international harmony. The plan called for the creation of a central world capital. In his words, the city would be "a fountain of overflowing knowledge to be fed by the whole world of human endeavour in art, science, religion, commerce, industry, and law; and in turn to diffuse throughout the whole of humanity as though it were one grand, divine body conceived by God, the vital requirements which would renew its strength, protect its rights, and enable it to attain greater heights through a concentration of world effort." Evident in the treatise is Andersen's philosophy that art could change humanity and produce perfection. While roundly criticized by urban planners of the time for its political naïveté coupled with an over-emphasis on the monumental, the work demonstrates an appreciation of the political and social conflicts necessitated by the rampant nationalism of the early 20th Century and sought to use art to bring about an Utopian world. Andersen's view of the power of art and architecture to transform society can be seen as a precursor to similar concepts advanced later in the 20th century by a variety of urban planners including

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

in his Contemporary City.

Relationship with Henry James

In 1899 Andersen met

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

the American expatriate writer. Although James was almost 30 years his senior the two developed a close relationship that was to last until James' death in 1916. While the precise nature of the relationship is still unclear and may always be so—the two actually met on just a few occasions, and then for only brief periods of time—they exchanged numerous letters, which evidence a close, loving, homoerotic bond perhaps best illustrated by a letter from James to Andersen following the death of Andersen's brother, dated 9 February 1902 where James wrote:

The sense that I can't help you, see you, talk to you, touch you, hold you close & long, or do anything to make you rest on me, & feel my deep participation – this torments me, dearest boy, makes me ache for you, & for myself; makes me gnash my teeth & groan at the bitterness of things. ... This is the one thought that relieves me about you a little - & I wish you might fix your eyes on it for the idea, just, of the possibility. I am in town for a few weeks, but return to Rye April 1st, & sooner or later to have you there & do for you, to put my arm round you & make you lean on me as on a brother & a lover, & keep you on & on, slowly comforted or at least relieved of the bitterness of pain – this I try to imagine as thinkable, attainable, not wholly out of the question.

Despite such affection, James lost patience with Andersen when the sculptor tried to interest him in the grandiose plans for the "World City." In response to Andersen's request that James endorse such plans, the novelist wrote on 4 September 1913:

I simply ''loathe'' such pretentious forms of words like "World" anything—they are to me mere monstrous sound without sense. The World is a prodigious & portentous & immeasurable affair, & I can't for a moment pretend to sit in my little corner here & "sympathise with" proposals for dealing with it. It is so far vaster in its appalling complexity than you or me, or than anything we can pretend without the imputation of absurdity & insanity to do to it, that I content myself, & inevitably ''must'' (so far as I can do anything now) with living in the realities of things, with "cultivating my garden" (morally & intellectually speaking) & with referring my questions to a Conscience (my own poor little personal) less inconceivable than that of the globe.

In another letter of April 14, 1912, James warned Andersen that he was slipping into megalomania with his plans for the "World City." Colm Toibin's 2004 novel '' The Master'' draws upon many sources to explore and give insight into beginnings of the James/Andersen relationship.

Hendrik Christian Andersen Museum

Andersen died in Rome in 1940. He bequeathed his home, studio, papers and more than 400 pieces of his work to the Italian Government. The home has been renovated and now is a museum located at Via Pasquale Stanislao Mancini, 20 (piazzale Flaminio). The museum is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and contains much of Andersen's work as well as that of other contemporary artists and photographers.

Burial

Andersen is buried in the

Protestant Cemetery, Rome The Cimitero Acattolico (Non-Catholic Cemetery) of Rome, often referred to as the Cimitero dei protestanti (Protestant Cemetery) or Cimitero degli Inglesi (English Cemetery), is a private cemetery in the rione of Testaccio in Rome. It is near ...

(''Cimitero acattolico'').

References

* Andersen, Hendrik Christian, Haebrard, Ernest M. et al. ''Creation of a World Centre of Communication''. Paris: N.p., 1913. * Huemeir, Christina, ''Spellbound by Rome : The Anglo-American Community in Rome (1890-1914) and the Founding of Keats-Shelley House = Incantati Da Roma La Comunita Anglo-Americana a Roma (1890-1914) E La Fondazione Della Keats-Shelley House'', *James, Henry, (Zorzi, Rosella Mamoli Editor), ''Beloved Boy: Letters to Hendrik C. Andersen, 1899-1915''
A. Trystan Edwards, ''A WORLD CENTRE OF COMMUNICATION'' ''Town Planning Review'' 5 (April 1914):14-30.

* ttp://ec.europa.eu/translation/reading/periodicals/interalia/interalia20.pdf ''Mundaneum – Storia di un’utopia'' 20 inter@lia p.2 (Marzo 2002) (in Italian)br>Museo Hendrik Christian Andersen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andersen, Hendrik Christian 1872 births 1940 deaths American urban planners Norwegian emigrants to the United States Burials in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome Artists from Newport, Rhode Island Artists from Rome American LGBT artists LGBT painters LGBT sculptors 20th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors Gay artists