Sophie Amalie Kurtzhals was Thorvaldsen’s girl friend in Copenhagen from around 1794 until he left the city to go to Rome in the autumn of 1796. She wrote a farewell greeting in his album on 5 June 1796 wishing him a safe journey and asking him never to forget his friends in Denmark, especially not his “friend Sophie Amalie Kurtzhals”. In addition to this, the museum archives contain a letter from Thorvaldsen to her, in which he apologises for arriving too late at a rendezvous with her. And further evidence of the relationship between the two is provided by this drawing, which Thorvaldsen made in Miss Kurtzhals’ album. In it, the girl’s name is wreathed in roses, and her beauty is praised in the text on the stone below. Sophie Amalie – who is so beautiful that it is impossible to paint her – must be satisfied with being represented by an angel.
