Ludvig Sandöe Ipsen

• Name — Ludvig Sandöe Ipsen • Born — 20 April 1840 • Birthplace — Copenhagen, Denmark • Died — 1920 • Place of death — Malden, Massachusetts, US • Known for — Book illustration, graphic and decorative design • Notable Works — * The Prince and The Pauper (1881) • Sonnets from the Portuguese (1886) • Forest Hills Cemetery crematorium • Children — Ernest Ludvig Ipsen

Ludvig Sandöe Ipsen was born on April 20, 1840, to Ludvig Ipsen and Mette Margrethe Ipsen in Copenhagen, Denmark. He trained as an architect at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen. In 1860, shortly after graduation, he entered the military, serving in the engineering corps and participating in the Second Schleswig War in 1864.

After military service, Ipsen worked for a few years in the office of a Copenhagen architect before emigrating to the United States. He found work with the Boston architect Henry W. Hartwell, and was later a member of the firm Hartwell & Swasey. By 1875, he had abandoned the practice of architecture in favor of the decorative arts and illustration. He did, however, return to architecture at least once, for the design of a crematorium chapel.

Shortly after the Boston-based men's choral society, the Apollo Club, was incorporated, Ipsen was commissioned by Arthur Reed, the club secretary, to illustrate the club's publications, and he designed 130 program covers over the course of 23 years, as well as designing the club's seal in 1876. The club's records, now held by the Massachusetts Historical Society, include fifty-one original illustrations created for Apollo Club concert programs.

In 1903, Ipsen was granted two patents for typefaces created for the American Type Founders Company (ATF): Florentine Bold Condensed (pat. no. 36,366) and Florentine Bold Extra Condensed (pat. no. 36,367). The fonts were variants of the Florentine typeface which first appeared in the ATF 1896 catalog. That catalog did not acknowledge a designer but the typographical historian Max McGrew credited Ipsen and the National Museum of American History holds original drawings for the related font Florentine Heavy dated 1896 and ascribed to Ipsen. He also designed decorative borders and initials for ATF. • Illustration — Florentine Bold Extra Condensed font, ATF catalog, 1912 • Illustration — Decorative borders, ATF catalog, 1900 • Illustration — Decorative initials, ATF catalog, 1900

In 1893, the Massachusetts Cremation Society opened a crematorium designed by Ipsen and built of Roxbury felsite in the neoclassical style. Now owned by Forest Hills Cemetery, it includes the Lucy Stone Chapel, named after the Boston abolitionist and suffragist who was the first person cremated there. Ipsen received a commission in 1910 to design a pair of iron gates for the Converse Memorial Library, which was designed by H. H. Richardson, in Malden. The gates enclose a garden designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

Ipsen emigrated to the United States in 1867, arriving first in New York, where he married Emma Petrea Petersen (18461914) in Manhattan on August 10, 1868. Emma, also born in Copenhagen, was a well-known mezzo-soprano who performed in recital halls and churches. She was the sister of John Petersen (18391874), a marine painter also known as Johan Erik Christian Petersen. The couple had moved to Malden, Massachusetts by the following year when their son, Ernest, was born. Ernest Ludvig Ipsen (18691951) became an internationally renowned portrait painter.

• Illustration — L. S. Ipsen, The Prince and The Pauper chapter heading, 1881 • Illustration — L. S. Ipsen, Half-title illustration, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Lord Byron, 1886 • Illustration — L. S. Ipsen, Title page ornament, The Scarlet Letter, 1878 • Illustration — L. S. Ipsen, Contents page header, The Scarlet Letter, 1878 • Illustration — Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto 6, illustrated by Ludvig S. Ipsen, 1885 • Illustration — Sonnets from the Portuguese, title page, 1886

The following works and productions are recorded by name or by count.