Origins uncertain, perhaps son of wood-carver Gotskalk Thorvaldsen
Royal Danish Art Academy (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, 1779-1795) with sculptor Johannes Wiedewelt and painter Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard
1793 – wins Danish Academy’s gold medal for relief Apostles Peter and John Healing a Lame Man (Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen)
1808 – becomes member of Academy of Saint Luke, Rome
1819 – begins receiving commissions for civic monuments, including Lion of Lucerne
1824 – Papal commission for tomb of Pius VII
1837 – donates collection of contemporary and ancient art to city of Copenhagen
1848 – Thorvaldsen Museum opens (Gottlieb Bindesboll, architect)
Rome (1797-1819, 1820-38, 1841-2); travels widely in Italy, Germany, and Poland en route to and from Rome to Copenhagen (1819-20)
Danish Royal family; Ludwig I (King of Bavaria); Thomas Hope; cities of Lucerne, Warsaw, Munich and Rome
Adonis, 1802-32 (Thorvaldsen Musem, Copenhagen)
Day, 1815 (Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen)
George Gordon, Lord Byron, 1817 (Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen)
Lion of Lucerne, 1819 (Lucerne)
Christ and Twelve Apostles, 1821-42 (Church of Our Lady, Copenhagen)
Tomb of Pius VII, (1824-31, St Peter’s, Rome)
Gutenberg Monument, 1835-7 (Mainz)
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg painted Thorvaldsen's portrait: Bertil Thorvaldsen, 1814 (Royal Danish Art Academy, Copenhagen)
Bukdahl, Else Marie. The Roots of Neoclassicism: Wiedewelt,Thorvaldsen and Danish Sculpture of Our Time. Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, 2004
Plon, Eugene. Thorvaldsen: His Life and Works. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2007