Frederik Christian Willerup

Willerup worked as the navy's sculptor at the Royal Danish Shipyard from 1776.

[1] He also made figureheads and ornaments for private shipowners, for instance at Larsens Plads, where a young Bertel Thorvaldsen and his father Gotskalk Thorvaldsen also worked.

III, p. 50), Willerup had requested "a small work in remembrance" from his young colleague, before Thorvaldsen's departure for Rome.

Thorvaldsen did not immediately seem to have complied with the request, but after his departure the bust was found in a box with the inscription: "for Willerup".

[1] Other works by Willerup include four allegorical sculptures of "The Four Winds" for the new Knippel Bridge in Copenhagen.