“Welding was my luck. Like this I became a sculptor of iron. That’s all, there is nothing to embroider, no interesting stories to invent.” - Robert Jacobsen
Robert Julius Tommy Jacobsen was born in 1912 in Copenhagen to a very modest family. After his college, he carries out several trades. He did not take classes at an Academy and trains himself in sculpture. He admires Rodin and Henri Laurens. In 1930, Jacobsen produces his first sculptures in wood without any preparatory drawings and adheres to the surrealist movement ‘Host’. The artist is inspired by the stories and fables of Scandinavia working first with wood, then stone. An exhibition in 1932 in Copenhagen on German expressionism inspires him, he discovers Nolde, Klee, etc.; the sculptor Barlach, the work of Arp, he is led towards abstraction.
During the war, he joins the young artists brought together by the revue ‘Helhesten’, led by Asger Jorn. The artist becomes friends with Asger Jorn and with Mortensen. His exhibitions are held more frequently in Scandanavia with his friends such as Hansen or Mortensen. The work of Robert Jacobsen already obeys the formal imperatives.
In 1947, he receives a scholarship from the French state and moves to Paris. It is in 1949 that the artist abandons stone and becomes one of the giants of hammered, forged and welded metal sculptures. He creates abstract forged sculptures where the void is underlined; the void is in effect considered as an entire form in itself where the metal is used to emphasize it. In the 50’s and 60’s, Jacobsen produces sculpture with discarded metal.
In 1962, he is named professor of the Academy of Fine Arts of Munich. It is at this time that the artist adds polychrome to accentuate the effects of form. In 1966, Jacobsen receives the grand prize for sculpture at the Biennale of Venice. The artist returns to Denmark in the 70’s to satisfy public demand and there designs monumental works. In 1976, he becomes a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Copenhagen. For several decades, the most renowned galleries, the greatest museums, show his works, in France and abroad. Robert Jacobsen equally practised engraving and illustrated works.
He passed away at his home in Tagelund, Denmark in January 1993.
at an Academy and trains himself in sculpture. He admires Rodin and 
