Carl Milles

Carl Milles (* June 23, 1875 at Knivsta, † September 19, 1955 on Lidingö in Stockholm; actually Carl Emil Wilhelm Andersson ) was one of the most important Swedish sculptor who was best known for his fountains. He was married to Olga Milles, born Granner, (1874-1967), an Austrian artist, and brother of artist Ruth Milles ( 1873-1941 ).

Work and life

In 1887 he studied at the École des Beaux -Arts in Paris. During the years 1920-1931 he was Professor at the School of Art in Stockholm. In these years, got Milles orders throughout Europe and overseas, he shuttled constantly between the European capitals back and forth. Since Milles had many orders in the U.S. and was offered a professorship him there, he moved in 1931 with his wife Olga to Cranbrook near Detroit. In Cranbrook Cranbrook Academy of Art opened in 1926, teachers in architecture was there Milles friend who Finn Eliel Saarinen and Milles himself took over in 1932 the discipline of sculpture, which he held until 1951. In 1945 he became an American citizen.

In 1951 the pair Olga Milles and Carl came back to Sweden, his home on Lidingö, the Millesgården, he had in 1936 converted to a foundation and donated to the Swedish people. Until his death in 1955 he lived in Rome, where he was the American Academy had provided free an apartment with studio available. Today, the Millesgården is an art museum with sculpture garden.

Among his most famous works in Sweden include the Poseidon statue in Gothenburg, the Gustav Vasa statue at the Nordic Museum in Stockholm, the Orfeus group in front of the Concert Hall in Stockholm and the Folke - Filbyter statue in Linköping. The latter is also depicted on a Swedish stamp of 1975, published on the occasion of his 100th birthday.

The largest collection of Milles sculpture outside the Millegården located in the Cranbrook Academy of Art, there are over sixty of his works to be seen.

God father on the arch of heaven

Perhaps one of the last sculptures by Carl Milles, which was completed is to be about 23 meters high plant Gud fader på himmelsbågen (God father on the arch of heaven ). The bronze sketch had Milles in 1946 under the name The Rainbow. Lord Placing new stars on heaven created and should be placed in front of the UN building in New York.

The sculpture depicts the god Men standing on top of an approximately 18 -meter-high, water-spouting, parabolic arc. The arch is the arch of heaven and at its foot is an angel that God the Father is enough stars to place them in the firmament.

However, was to Milles great regret nothing from the job, only his bronze sketch existed in Millesgården. Only in 1995 the sculpture was given its place in the port of Nacka beach at the entrance to Stockholm. The Marshall M. Fredericks American sculptor (1908-1998), a longtime employee of Milles, was the only one who could this daring work of art in Carl Milles sense, forty years after his death, to accomplish.