Ludvig Sandöe Ipsen (April 20, 1840 – 1920) was a Danish-American artist and designer. Trained as an architect, he is known for his designs in a wide variety of disciplines.

Early life and education

Ludvig Sandöe Ipsen was born on April 20, 1840, to Ludvig Ipsen (18061875) and Mette Margrethe Ipsen (, August 16, 1808 – April 23, 1840) in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Denmark. He trained as an architect at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen. In 1860, shortly after graduation, he entered the military, serving in the engineering corps and participating in the

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. T ...

in 1864.

Career

After military service, Ipsen worked for a few years in the office of a Copenhagen architect before emigrating to the United States. He found work with the Boston architect Henry Walker Hartwell, and was later a member of the firm

Hartwell & Swasey Hartwell & Swasey was a short-lived 19th-century architectural firm in Boston, Massachusetts. The partnership between Henry Walker Hartwell (1833-1919) and Albert E. Swasey, Jr. lasted from the late-1860s to 1877, when Swasey went on his own.Jam ...

. By 1875, he had abandoned the practice of architecture in favor of the decorative arts and illustration. He did, however, return to architecture at least once, for the design of a crematorium chapel.

Book illustration

Ibsen was employed as a staff illustrator by the

James R. Osgood James Ripley Osgood (1836–1892) was an American publisher in Boston. He was involved with the publishing company that became Houghton Mifflin. Life and work James Ripley Osgood was born in Fryeburg, Maine, on February 22, 1836. A reputed child ...

publishing firm in Boston and also worked for several other local publishers. The Prince and the pauper 01-021

* ''The Skeleton in Armor'' by

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...

(1877) * ''The Scarlet Letter'' by

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

(1878) * ''The Confessions of a Frivolous Girl'' by Robert Grant (1880) * ''The Prince and the Pauper'' by

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

, sharing illustration credit with

Frank T. Merrill Frank Thayer Merrill (December 14, 1848October 12, 1936) was an American artist and illustrator. He is best known for his drawings for the first illustrated edition of Louisa May Alcott's novel ''Little Women'', published in 1880. Over a five-d ...

and John J. Harley. (1881) * ''The Lady of the Lake'' by

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...

(1883) * ''Marmion'' by Sir Walter Scott (1885) * ''Eudora'' by M. B. M. Toland (1888) The book that brought Ipsen the most acclaim was ''

Sonnets from the Portuguese ''Sonnets from the Portuguese'', written ca. 1845–1846 and published first in 1850, is a collection of 44 love sonnets written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The collection was acclaimed and popular during the poet's lifetime and it remain ...

'' by

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime. Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Elizabet ...

, issued in 1886 by Ticknor and Company of Boston.

Other works on paper

Shortly after the Boston-based men's choral society, the

Apollo Club Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

, was incorporated, Ipsen was commissioned by Arthur Reed, the club secretary, to illustrate the club's publications, and he designed 130 program covers over the course of 23 years, as well as designing the club's seal in 1876. The club's records, now held by the

Massachusetts Historical Society The Massachusetts Historical Society is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history. The Massachusetts Historical Society was established in 1791 and is located at 1154 Boylston Street in Bost ...

, include fifty-one original illustrations created for Apollo Club concert programs.

Typography

In 1903, Ipsen was granted two patents for typefaces created for the American Type Founders Company (ATF): Florentine Bold Condensed (pat. no. 36,366) and Florentine Bold Extra Condensed (pat. no. 36,367). The fonts were variants of the Florentine typeface which first appeared in the ATF 1896 catalog. That catalog did not acknowledge a designer but the typographical historian Max McGrew credited Ipsen and the

National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...

holds original drawings for the related font Florentine Heavy dated 1896 and ascribed to Ipsen. He also designed decorative borders and initials for ATF. File:ATF Florentine Bold Extra Condensed Ludvig S Ipsen.png, Florentine Bold Extra Condensed font, ATF catalog, 1912 File:Ludvig S Ipsen ATF 1900 borders.jpg, Decorative borders, ATF catalog, 1900 File:Ludvig S Ipsen ATF 1900 initials.jpg, Decorative initials, ATF catalog, 1900

Architecture and architectural elements

In 1893, the Massachusetts Cremation Society opened a crematorium designed by Ipsen and built of Roxbury felsite in the neoclassical style. Now owned by Forest Hills Cemetery, it includes the Lucy Stone Chapel, named after the Boston abolitionist and suffragist who was the first person cremated there. Ipsen received a commission in 1910 to design a pair of iron gates for the

Converse Memorial Library The Converse Memorial Library – also known as Converse Memorial Building – is a historically significant building designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson. From 1885 to 1996, it housed the Malden Public Library, which now o ...

, which was designed by

H. H. Richardson Henry Hobson Richardson, FAIA (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was an American architect, best known for his work in a style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one ...

, in Malden. The gates enclose a garden designed by

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...

Personal life

Ipsen emigrated to the United States in 1867, arriving first in New York, where he married Emma Petrea Petersen (18461914) in Manhattan on August 10, 1868. Emma, also born in Copenhagen, was a well-known mezzo-soprano who performed in recital halls and churches. She was the sister of John Petersen (18391874), a marine painter also known as Johan Erik Christian Petersen. The couple had moved to Malden, Massachusetts by the following year when their son, Ernest, was born.https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FXZ2-GX3 Birth record for Ernest L. Ipsen

Ernest Ludvig Ipsen Ernest L. Ipsen (1869-1951) was an American painter specializing in portraiture. He painted hundreds of portraits commissioned by institutions of government, education, religion, and commerce who wanted to commemorate their associates. His subjec ...

(18691951) became an internationally renowned portrait painter.

Gallery

File:The Prince and The Pauper - 17-201.jpg, L. S. Ipsen, ''The Prince and The Pauper'' chapter heading, 1881 File:Ludvig S Ipsen 1886 Child Harolds Pilgrimage.jpg, L. S. Ipsen, Half-title illustration, ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' by Lord Byron, 1886 File:Ludvig S Ipsen 1878 The Scarlet Letter title page ornament.png, L. S. Ipsen, Title page ornament, ''The Scarlet Letter'', 1878 File:Ludvig S Ipsen 1878 The Scarlet Letter contents header.png, L. S. Ipsen, Contents page header, ''The Scarlet Letter'', 1878 File:Marmion Canto 6 1885 illustrator L S Ipsen.jpg, Sir Walter Scott, ''Marmion'', Canto 6, illustrated by Ludvig S. Ipsen, 1885 File:Ludvig S Ipsen Sonnets from the Portuguese 1886 Title page.jpg, ''Sonnets from the Portuguese'', title page, 1886

References

Sources

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External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ipsen, Ludvig Sandoe 1840 births 1920 deaths American illustrators Typographers and type designers Book designers People from Malden, Massachusetts Danish illustrators Danish designers