He apprenticed as a wood carver, after which he trained at the
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts between 1894 and 1899. Eriksen's most famous work is the bronze statue of
The Little Mermaid (
Den Lille Havfrue). In 1909,
Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of
Carlsberg brewery, commissioned the work of art as a gift to the City of Copenhagen. It was set up on 23 August 1913 by the shore of the promenade Langelinie in the harbor of the old port district of
Nyhavn. Two different women served as models to create the statue. Eriksen used his wife,
Eline Eriksen, as the model for the statue's body and actress
Ellen Price as the model for the mermaid's head. Among his other works are the allegorical statues
Grief, Memory and Love made of marble in 1908 for the sarcophagus of
Christian IX and
Queen Louise in
Roskilde Cathedral. Edvard Eriksen taught at the Royal Danish Academy between 1908–1919 and was a conservator at
Thorvaldsen Museum 1930–1953. He travelled around Italy with his family learning to carve in marble and was made an honorary professor at the
Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara. He was appointed
Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1932. ==Personal life==