Wender·Vista
The Little Mermaid
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileDenmark
on the Langelinie promenade, Copenhagen harbour

The Little Mermaid

— — a small bronze, looking out at the water.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“The statue sits on a granite rock just off the Langelinie promenade, where the Copenhagen harbour opens toward the Øresund. Edvard Eriksen cast her in bronze in 1913, after a commission from the brewer Carl Jacobsen, who had been moved by a Royal Danish Ballet adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen tale. She is small — about 1.25 metres — and easy to miss from the path until you are nearly past her.

from the studio
The Little Mermaid
— bring it home

The Little Mermaid, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about The Little Mermaid

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

The Little Mermaid sits on the waterline at Langelinie, the broad promenade running north from Copenhagen's Kastellet citadel along the harbour mouth. The statue was a gift to the city from Carl Jacobsen, the founder of the Carlsberg brewery, who had been struck by a 1909 Royal Danish Ballet adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 fairy tale. Sculptor Edvard Eriksen cast it in bronze and unveiled it on 23 August 1913. The model for the face was the ballerina Ellen Price; Eriksen's wife Eline modelled the body.

— the stone

The figure is cast in bronze, about 1.25 metres tall, and seated on a low granite boulder set among loose stones at the waterline. The piece has been damaged repeatedly across its history: the head was sawn off and stolen in 1964 and again in 1998, an arm was cut off in 1984, and the statue has been knocked from its rock and covered in paint on several occasions. The original head is held in storage by the Eriksen family; the figure on the harbour wears recast replacements.

— the visit

The statue is free to view at any hour and easy to reach on foot from central Copenhagen. The walk from Nyhavn takes about twenty-five minutes along the harbour, passing the Royal Danish Playhouse and the Amalienborg complex. From Kastellet, the citadel just inland, the figure is a five-minute stroll along the seawall. Crowds are thickest in the middle of summer days when cruise ships dock at the Langelinie quay; early morning and the hour before sunset are quieter, and the harbour light is better.

— where
Denmark · Copenhagen, Denmark
— elevation
0 m · 0 ft
— position
55.6929° N · 12.5993° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
at the lake
Kastellet
star fortress
1 km S
Amalienborg
royal palace
2 km S
Nyhavn
harbour canal
at the lake
Gefion Fountain
fountain sculpture
N
The Little Mermaid
Kastellet
Amalienborg
Nyhavn
Gefion Fountain
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about The Little Mermaid — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

The statue sits on a rock at the waterline of the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen, just north of the Kastellet citadel. It faces the harbour mouth toward the Øresund.

Danish sculptor Edvard Eriksen cast the bronze figure for brewer Carl Jacobsen, founder of Carlsberg. It was unveiled on the Langelinie promenade on 23 August 1913.

Carl Jacobsen attended a 1909 Royal Danish Ballet adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 fairy tale and was moved enough by it to commission a public sculpture of the title figure for the city.

The bronze figure stands about 1.25 metres tall, which catches many visitors off guard. She is seated on a granite boulder roughly the same height, set among loose stones at the waterline.

Yes, several times. The head was sawn off in 1964 and 1998, an arm was cut off in 1984, and the figure has been knocked from its rock and painted over on multiple occasions since the 1960s.

The statue is about a twenty-five minute walk north from Nyhavn along the Copenhagen harbour, or a five-minute walk from Kastellet. It is also reached by harbour ferry and several city bus lines.

— about the piece in your home

It has been a meaningful gift for our customers with family in Copenhagen, Danish heritage, or fond memories of an early trip abroad. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note from the studio reads as a quiet keepsake.

The cool greys, harbour blues, and verdigris read well in Scandinavian, Japandi, and Minimalist interiors. The piece also sits naturally in a more traditional library where bronze and oak already share the room.

Current Scandinavian styling has moved toward warmer accents on a quiet palette, often with one figurative piece anchoring a wall. A tile of the Little Mermaid does that work without crowding the room.

Above a standard sofa or console, a single Large reads as a window onto the harbour. For a longer wall, a four-tile Mural extends the seawall. A Medium suits a narrow hallway or a desk wall.

Yes. For a backsplash, shower wall, or powder room, order the Dura Satin or Matte finish; both are scratch-resistant and made for vertical installation in wet rooms. Glossy is intended for framed display.

A microfibre cloth and water is enough for ordinary dust. For a kitchen or bath installation, a mild non-abrasive cleaner is fine. No solvents, no bleach, no scouring pads on the surface.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is original work by Reid Wender, made in our single studio at the foot of the Smoky Mountains in Knoxville, Tennessee. We do not license the work to other manufacturers.

— if this one stayed with you

A few you might also love.

Hand-picked by the eye that found Sorapis. Same air, same kind of quiet.