The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid (Danish: Den lille Havfrue) is a bronze statue by sculptor Edvard Eriksen, depicting a mermaid becoming human. The depiction is based on the 1837 fairy tale of the same name by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The sculpture is displayed on a rock on the Langelinie waterfront promenade in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, who had been fascinated by a ballet of the fairytale in Copenhagen's Royal Theatre and asked the ballerina, Ellen Price, to model for the statue. The sculptor Edvard Eriksen created the bronze statue, which was unveiled on August 23, 1913.[5] 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

Based on the 1837 fairy tale of the same name by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, the small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and has been a major tourist attraction since its unveiling in 1913.

I thought it might be fun to do a sketch of Edvard working in his studio, sculpting the model for the final bronze sculpture in terra cotta clay, while his wife poses nude.