The Little Match Girl sculpture

Let fairy tales live on through original stories made of wood. In 2021, the Hans Christian Andersen’s House museum opened in Odense, marking the start of a collaboration between the museum and Kay Bojesen Denmark. This has resulted in new interpretations of the beloved characters from these world-famous fairy tales rooted in Kay Bojesen’s universe of original stories made of wood. The Nightingale, The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep, and the Sandman were the first to move onto the shelves of the museum shop in Odense – as well as into your local design store. Now, the Little Match Girl has also found her way into the warmth. In Kay Bojesen’s interpretation, The Little Match Girl is dressed in a hood that goes down over her shoulders. The patches on her dress and apron have subtle colours to emphasise her poverty. Her warm smile, together with a gentle and innocent expression, are born from the beautiful experiences she sees when glancing into the light of the flames, where on a cold New Year’s Eve she awakens her imagination with some fantastic dream visions filled with joy and security. In her hand, she holds a match that completes the story. The Little Match Girl stands at 14.5 cm high and is made from FSC®-certified beech wood. The manual production of painting and printing has been undertaken with the great precision and care typical of Kay Bojesen's wooden figurines. The shape is based on the original Lise figurine from Kay Bojesen’s archive, which is simple and minimalist, but full of life and soul. This gives The Little Match Girl that air of magic and adventure synonymous with Kay Bojesen’s spirit and the story he managed to conjure up when designing his imaginative figurines.