The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid was a present from brewer Carl Jacobsen (The Carlsberg Breweries) to Copenhagen, and was made by a little known sculptor called Edvard Erichsen. She was unveiled at Langelinje in 1913, as part of a general trend in Copenhagen in those days, which demanded that classical and historic figures be used as decoration in the city's parks and public areas.

In 1909, brewer Carl Jacobsen saw solo dancer Ellen Price dance in Fini Henriques' ballet "The Little Mermaid" at the Royal Theatre. He was so taken with her that he asked her if she would pose for a sculptor. She agreed in principle, but was not very interested in posing in the nude, when she found out just how publicly the statue would be placed. So Edvard Erichsens wife stepped in and modeled for the body. On September 14, 1912, the statue was first test positioned at its location, and on August 23, 1913, it was placed at its location permanently.

The Little Mermaid symbolizes the adventure by Danish poet Hans Christian Andersen, which tells the story of a mermaid who fell in love with a prince from land, and often came up to the edge of the water to look for her love. The sculpture pictures her as she sits and looks out over the water, after having married the prince, and reminiscing over her lost childhood in the sea, as a mermaid.

The story of The Little Mermaid is not a very happy one - she does get her loved one, by visiting a witch and agreeing to give the witch her tongue, in exchange for legs to replace her fish tail. And every step she took on her legs, hurt like she was walking on swords. So in order to get her love, she became a mute and was in pain with every step she took. The things you do for love...

The sculptor has taken a certain "poetic license" when creating The Little Mermaid. She has part legs, part a fish tail, although the story by Hans Christian Andersen clearly defines when she has a fish tail and when she has legs. The sculpture pictures her at a time after she has gotten her legs. The hybrid leg/tail arrangement was probably done in order to make it easier to figure out just who she is, if you don't know her in advance. Today that seems superfluous.

Guide tip: When photographing the mermaid, check the background. If you move somewhat to the left/North of her, you'll get the Holmen area as a background, which is preferable to the industrial cranes and chimneys you get, if you just walk down in front of her and take a quick picture. Actually she's easiest to photograph when the weather's grey and overcast. Because of some rather self-centered characters who insist on climbing up on her to be photographed, and wearing the patina off of the cobber in the process, she's so dark and featureless that it takes much work to make her look good on photos. These pictures were taken with the help of a fill flash, held out to the left about 3 feet and somewhat lower than the camera lens.