Per Hasselberg

He has received critical acclaim mainly for his delicate and allegorical nudes, copies of which are widely distributed in public places and private homes in Sweden.

Hasselberg was born 1 January 1850 in the small village Hasselstad near Ronneby in the province of Blekinge in the south of Sweden.

Hasselberg finished school at the age of twelve and became a carpenter apprentice in Karlshamn, where he even got a training as ornamental sculptor.

After this, he moved to Stockholm in 1869, where he took several jobs as ornamental sculptor and visited evening and weekend courses at craft school.

In 1876, he got a scholarship from the Swedish National Board of Trade to travel to Paris, where he was accepted at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts the following year.

This success meant that Hasselberg suddenly was a famous artist in Sweden, where the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm soon ordered a copy in marble.

Copies in bronze at public places are on Maria Square (Mariatorget)/Stockholm, in Falun, Ronneby, and near Sunne (Rottneros park).

[7] The original French name was L'Aiëul (The Grandfather) and it was first made in plaster cast 1886 in Paris and exhibited at the Palais de l'Industrie that year.

[9] Grodan (French La Grenouille, English The Frog) was made in plaster cast for the Exposition Universelle (1889) in Paris and exhibited there.

Hasselberg reported that the concept of this piece had spontaneously come up when a model in his studio during a break sat on the floor in this position to rest.