Video: The Real Little Mermaid: Who Is Really Captured As A Fairy Heroine In The Famous Copenhagen Symbol Sculpture
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
23 August 103 years ago in Copenhagen the opening of the monument, which would later become a symbol of the Danish capital, took place - "The Little Mermaids" … Based on Andersen's fairy tale, the premiere of the ballet with Ellen Price in the title role took place in 1909 at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen. The ballerina impressed the son of the founder of the Carlsberg brewery so much that he asked the sculptor E. Erickson to portray her in the image of the Little Mermaid. However, Ellen refused to pose. Whose features are captured in the famous sculpture?
Ellen Price grew up in a creative atmosphere: her parents were ballet dancers of the Royal Danish Theater, and aunt Juliet Price was the first performer of the part of Giselle in Denmark. Ellen continued her artistic dynasty, and from 1903 she was a soloist with the Royal Danish Ballet. Her most famous ballet parts were Sylphide, Shepherdess, Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, but the latter became not only the most successful, but also significant for the ballerina: it was in this image that the great art lover, magnate and philanthropist Carl Jacobsen dreamed of capturing her in bronze.
The prima ballerina initially agreed to work with the sculptor Edward Eriksen as a model, but when she learned that she needed to pose naked, she categorically abandoned the idea. Ellen Price performed at the Royal Danish Theater until 1913. After completing her career as a dancer, she entered the Drama Theater in Aarhus, where she worked until 1915. She also starred in two silent films.
As a result, the sculptor's wife, Elina Eriksen, had to pose. Eriksen sculpted the head of the Little Mermaid with Ellen Price, and the torso with his wife. True, the sculptor's descendants claim that The Little Mermaid fully reproduces the features of Eline Eriksen. A bronze sculpture 125 cm high and weighing 175 kg was installed in the Danish capital at the very entrance to the port, on the Langelinier pier. Carl Jacobsen donated his "Little Mermaid" to the city on August 23, 1913, and since then it has been decorating Copenhagen's bay.
The fate of the Little Mermaid was sad not only in Andersen's tale, but also in her bronze guise. The monument has repeatedly become a victim of vandals. In 1964, the Little Mermaid was beheaded, after restoration it was repeated again in 1998. In 1984, drunken hooligans sawed off the statue's right hand, after which they went to the police and confessed to what they had done. In 2003, vandals threw the sculpture from the pedestal into the water, and in 2007 they painted it pink. Copenhagen authorities are tired of having to restore the monument over and over again.
Today "The Little Mermaid" is one of the most popular and famous sights of Denmark in the world. About a million people visit it every year. And sailors from all over the world bring her flowers.
The history of the creation of other sculptures is no less interesting: 7 fun facts about the most famous sculptures
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