Tove Ólafsson
Tove Ólafsson, born Tove Thomasen (October 5, 1909 – December 5, 1992), was a Danish sculptor known for public works featuring children and women. She mainly worked in wood and stone, but also used clay; her bronze sculpture Hurtigløber (Fast Runner), created in 1982, stands outside Brøndbyhallen in Copenhagen. She received the Eckersberg Medal in 1948.
She was born in Copenhagen to Rolf Clemen Thomasen and Agnes Sophie Rossing. From an early age she showed a knack for making things with her hands and began formal sculpture training in 1927 with Poul B. Olrik. In 1929 she spent a year in Florence with Aristide Aloisi. Encouraged by her uncle, translator Einar Thomassen, she studied under Einar Utzon-Frank at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1932 to 1935. She married Icelandic sculptor Sigurjón Ólafsson in 1934.
Ólafsson first exhibited at the Charlottenborg autumn exhibition in 1934, but from 1944 she explored mother-and-child themes, starting with Mor og Barn. A 1961 work with the same title was shown in Odense’s Eventyrhaven. In 1944 she became the first woman and the first sculptor to join the artist group Kammeraterne, and she exhibited with them almost every year until her death.
She and her husband moved to Iceland in 1945, living under very basic conditions, before returning to Copenhagen in 1953. After her divorce in 1955, she raised two children in Nærum. Her finances improved when Copenhagen Municipality bought one of her works in the late 1950s.
Ólafsson died on December 5, 1992, in Gentofte, Denmark, and is buried at Ordrup Cemetery. She received several honors, including the Kai Nielsen memorial prize in 1959 and a Tagea Brandt travel scholarship in 1960, in addition to the Eckersberg Medal.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 18:53 (CET).