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.

[2] Sigvald Asbjørnsen emigrated to the United States in 1892, first working in Michigan where he received several important commissions for sculpture.

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.

His sculptural work was shown at the University of Minnesota exhibit "The Divided Heart: Scandinavian Immigrant Artists, 1850–1950" in 1982.