Thorvaldsen has depicted himself as a fairly young man in a work situation, dressed in a workman's robe and with mallet and chisel in his hands, resting his left arm on a somewhat down-scaled representation of his 1817 statue of Hope.

When Thorvaldsen the same year had been awarded Knight of the Great Cross in the Order of the Dannebrog, he had also included a Thor figure in his first sketches for a coat of arms (for Frederiksborg Castle).

Over the last decades, he had on the other hand shown a remarkable unwillingness, in spite of prevailing trends of his time and numerous endorsements, to include subject matter from Norse mythology in his work.

[1] The original plaster model for the sculpture was created by Thorvaldsen in 1839 in his studio at Nysø Manor.

[2] A bronze copy of the sculpture was in the 1890s presented to New York City by Americans of Danish descent.