Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen (née Brodersen) was a Danish sculptor who executed monuments, equestrian statues and cathedral doors as well as sculptures. A. M. Carl-Nielsen was born on the farm of Thygesminde in Sønder Stenderup. As a child, she began modelling the farm’s animals in clay and butter. Aged 17 in 1881, she received her first artistic training at Christian Carl Magnussen’s (1821-1896) School of Carving in Schleswig. In the following year, she travelled to Copenhagen despite her parents’ reluctance about her artistic career. She first applied to become an apprentice of the Danish sculptor Vilhelm Bissen (1836–1913). V. Bissen rejected her as a pupil, and instead she became apprenticed to the Danish sculptor August Saabye (1823–1916) from 1882 to 1888, attending Tegne- og Kunstindustriskolen for Kvinder [The School of Drawing and Art Industry for Women] in 1882.

She debuted at the Spring Exhibition at Charlottenborg in Copenhagen in 1884 with a bust. The bust was well received and consequently her parents let her continue on her path as a sculptor. She exhibited at Charlottenborg almost every year, until her admission in the secession art movement Den Frie Udstilling [The Free Exhibition] in 1892. In 1888, she exhibited two calf sculptures; En kalv, der klør sig bag øret [A Calf Scratching Itself Behind Its Ear, 1887] and En kalv, der slikker sig [A Calf Licking Itself, 1887] at Den Nordiske Industri-, Landbrugs- og Kunstudstilling [The Nordic Exhibition of Industry, Agriculture and Art]. In the following year, the calves were shown at the Exposition Universelle in Paris and awarded a bronze medal, and in 1893 they were exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

A. M. Carl-Nielsen held an honorary place at the Women’s School of the Royal Danish Academy of Art in 1889–1890, which made it possible for her to participate in the Academy’s competitions for medals and travel grants. In 1890 she travelled to Paris on a grant from the academy. Here, she met the French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), who had seen her calf sculptures at the Exposition Universelle, and the Danish violinist and composer Carl Nielsen (1865–1931), whom she married in the following year. In 1899–1900 A. M. Carl-Nielsen travelled to Rome to become an apprentice of the French sculptor Victor Ségoffin (1867–1925). In 1903 she travelled to Athens, where she began copying archaic Greek sculptures from the Temple of Athena. Altes Museum in Berlin bought six of her archaic copies, but the sculptures were lost in World War II. The Danish brewer Carl Jacobsen (1842–1914) bought four copies for the Royal Cast Collection, a part of SMK – National Gallery of Denmark. Amongst A. M. Carl-Nielsen’s biggest accomplishments as a sculptor are the cathedral doors for Ribe Cathedral, which she finished in 1904, and the equestrian statue of Christian IX, which she finished in 1927.

A. M. Carl-Nielsen was a member of Akademiraadet [The Academy Council] during the period 1912–1914, was a recipient of Ingenio et arti – a Danish medal of honour – in 1927 and received Thorvaldsen Medaillen [The Thorvaldsen Medal] in 1932.