Sigvald Asbjornsen (August 20, 1867 - September 8, 1954) was a Norwegian born American sculptor.[1]
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Sigvald Asbjørnsen was born in Oslo, Norway. Asbjørnsen studied art with Mathias Skeibrok and Julius Middelthun and under Brynjulf Bergslien. At the age of 16 he was awarded a stipend from King Oscar II to study at the Royal Academy in Oslo where he worked for five years.
Sigvald Asbjornsen emigrated to the United States in 1892, first working in Michigan where he received several important commissions for sculpture. He eventually moved to Chicago where he worked on the buildings for the World Columbian Exposition of 1893. The remainder of his professional career was spent in Chicago where he sculpted a number of public works which were sent to various localities in the United States. He received the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1952 from Norway’s King Haakon VII.[2]
Asbjornsen was primarily known as a sculptor. Some of his well-known commissions include the Leif Erikson statue in Humboldt Park in Chicago; the Edvard Grieg statue in Prospect Park, Brooklyn; Louis Joliet for the Public Library in Joliet, Illinois and War and Soldiers’ Statue for the Sherman Monument, Washington, D.C. American statesmen he sculpted included the John R. Monaghan Monument, Spokane, Washington. He also crafted busts in bronze of Benjamin Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt. He made medallions of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Henrik Ibsen and Edvard Grieg among others. His sculptured relief bust of Roald Amundsen is in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California. Asbjornsen exhibited sculptures at the Art Institute of Chicago between 1897 and 1921. His sculptural work was also shown at the University of Minnesota exhibit, "The Divided Heart: Scandinavian Immigrant Artists, 1850-1950" in 1982.[3]