tel gained his first prize at the academy the chaplain of the
school at Charlottenburg asked him if the boy who had taken the prize
was his brother. He looked up with surprise, and blushing, said, "It is
myself, Herr Chaplain." The priest was astounded at this, and said,
"Herr Thorwaldsen, please to pass up to the first class."

The boy was amazed at these honors, and from this day retained the title
of "Herr," which gave him much distinction. When, after many years, the
sculptor had been loaded with honors, and stood on the heights of fame,
he was accustomed to say that no glory had ever been so sweet to him as
that first rapture which came from the words of the Chaplain Hoeyer when
he was seventeen years old and a poor school-boy.

The effect of this first prize seemed to be to rouse his ambition, and
he worked with the greatest diligence and earnestness. Two years later
he made a bas-relief of Love in Repose, which took the large silver
medal. His father now thought him prepared to enter on the life of a
ship's carver, and Bertel made no objection to doing so; but the painter
Abildgaard, who had been his teacher in the academy, had grown very fond
of him, and saw how much talent he had, and could not think of his being
but a common tradesman without deep regret. He went, therefore, to the
old carver, and after some difficulty obtained his consent that his son
should spend half his time in study at the academy, and the other half
in the earning of his daily bread at his father's side.

In 1790, when twenty years old, Thorwaldsen made a medallion of the
Princess of Denmark, which was so good a likeness that a number of
copies was sold. A year later he gained the small gold medal of the
academy by a bas-relief of the Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple.
The Minister of State now became interested in the young artist, and
measures were taken to aid him to go on with his studies. His patrons
desired him to study the subjects of the antique sculptures, and he
chose that of Priam begging the Body of Hector from Achilles. Later in
life he repeated this subject, and it is interesting to notice the
strength and grandeur of the second when compared with the weakness of
the first. And yet it was from the latter that predictions were made of
Thorwaldsen's future greatness. In 1793 he gained the prize which
entitled him to travel and study three years at the expense of the
academy. The work he presented was a bas-relief of Sa