Sunday, September 5, 2010

Little Mermaid Statue, Copenhagen, Denmark


Copenhagen - "Langelinie" and the Little Mermaid

Postmarked in 1973 with a Germany Umweltschutz Luft (Environmental Air Protection) stamp

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The statue of The Little Mermaid sits on a rock in the Copenhagen harbour at Langelinie. This small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and a major tourist attraction.

The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, who had been fascinated by a ballet about the fairytale in Copenhagen’s Royal Theatre and asked the primaballerina, Ellen Price, to model for the statue. The sculptor Edvard Eriksen created the statue, which was unveiled on 23 August 1913. The statue’s head was modelled after Price, but as the ballerina did not agree to model in the nude, the sculptor’s wife Eline Eriksen was used for the body.

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