Edvard Eriksen (10 March 1876 – 12 January 1959) was a Danish–

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Biography

He apprenticed as a wood carver, after which he trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts between 1894 and 1899. Eriksen's most famous work is the bronze statue of '' The Little Mermaid'' (''Den Lille Havfrue''). In 1909, Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg brewery, commissioned the work of art as a gift to the City of Copenhagen. It was set up on 23 August 1913 by the shore of the promenade Langelinie in the harbor of the old port district of Nyhavn. Two different women served as models to create the statue. Eriksen 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. Among his other works are the allegorical statues ''Grief, Memory and Love'' made of marble in 1908 for the sarcophagus of Christian IX and Queen Louise in

Roskilde Cathedral Roskilde Cathedral (), in the city of Roskilde on the island of Zealand (Denmark), Zealand (''Sjælland'') in eastern Denmark, is a cathedral of the Lutheranism, Lutheran Church of Denmark. The cathedral is one of the most important churches in D ...

. Edvard Eriksen taught at the Royal Danish Academy between 1908–1919 and was a conservator at

Thorvaldsen Museum The Thorvaldsen Museum is a single-artist museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, dedicated to the art of Danish and Icelandic Neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844), who lived and worked in Rome for most of his life (1796–1838). The ...

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. He was appointed Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1932.

Personal life

After marrying Eline Vilhelmine Møller (1881-1963) in 1900, they had five children. Eriksen died at Copenhagen and was buried at Vestre Cemetery.

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* * 1876 births 1959 deaths Sculptors from Copenhagen Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni Academic staff of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts 20th-century Danish sculptors Male sculptors Recipients of the Eckersberg Medal Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog Danish people of Icelandic descent Burials at Vestre Cemetery, Copenhagen 20th-century Danish male artists {{Denmark-sculptor-stub