Edvard Eriksen
Edvard Eriksen was a Danish–Icelandic sculptor. He is best known as the creator of The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen 1909–1913, and used his wife, Eline Eriksen, as the model for the statue's body, and actress Ellen Price as the model for the mermaid's head.Biography
He apprenticed as a wood carver, after which he trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts between 1894 and 1899. After marrying Eline Vilhelmine Møller in 1900, they had five children.
Among his other works are the allegorical statues Grief, Memory and Love" made in 1908 in marble for the sarcophagus of Christian IX and Queen Louise in Roskilde Cathedral. Edvard Eriksen taught at the Royal Academy between 1908–1919 and was a conservator at Thorvaldsen Museum 1930–1953.
He travelled around Italy with his family learning to carve in marble and was made an honorary professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara and was appointed Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1932.
