Mermaid

Mermaid (Danish: Havfrue) is a bronze sculpture designed by the Danish sculptor Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, depicting a mermaid. The original bronze cast from 1921 is on display in the SMK's permanent collection.

Carl-Nielsen's mermaid is, with her projecting fins, flat nose and fish-like mouth, more creature and less human than Edvard Eriksen's nine years older Little Mermaid. She is also depicted in a more dynamic pose and with a more dramatic expression than that of Eriksen's more famous mermaid: She has a terrified look in her eyes and appears to have just come out of the water, gasping for breath and with hair dripping with water. The Carl Nielsen specialist John Fellow has suggested that the mermaid's tormented facial expression is Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen's comment to her difficult marriage and her husband's repeated infidelity. He has pointed out that the mermaid sculpture was the only work that she created during this difficult period that was not a commission created out of economic necessity. It has also been suggested that the sculpture symbolizes the transition from girl to woman.

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