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In 1909 the Danish brewer Carl Jacobsen attended Hans Beck's ballet performance The Little Mermaid. He was so thrilled with the performance that he ordered a statue erected in honour of the story.
The sculptor Edward Eriksen was commissioned to create the statue, a Little Mermaid sitting on a granite stone at Langelinie Pier, wistfully looking towards the shore with the lit up world of the humans. Edward Eriksen chose to sculpt her at the moment when her tail is being transformed into legs.
Her head and torso was modelled after sculptor Edward Eriksen's own wife, Eline. The statue is made of bronze, and it stands 165 centimetres tall and weighs 175 kilos. This might sound like a big statue, but placed on a rock in the sea she does not look very big, which disappoints many people. To this we can only repeat that her name is indeed The Little Mermaid!
Carl Jacobsen first presented her to the City of Copenhagen on August 23, 1913, and in 2003 the Little Mermaid celebrated her 90th birthday.
The statue's history
1913 - August 23
First presented to the City of Copenhagen
1961 - September 1
bra & knickers were painted on her, and her hair was 'dyed' red
1963 - April 28
she was covered in red paint
1964 - April 24
she was decapitated
1976 - July 15
she was covered in paint
1984 - July 22
her right arm was cut off
1990 - August 5
another attempt to decapitate her was made
1998 - January 6
she was decapitated
2003 - August 23
Celebrates 90th anniversary of the statue
2003 - September 11
she was removed from her stone and pushed into the water
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