Carl Milles

Carl Milles , 1875-1955, Swedish-American sculptor, whose name originally was Carl Emil Wilhelm Anderson. Influenced by Rodin, he studied in Paris from 1897 until 1904, when he returned to Stockholm. In 1929 he visited the United States for the first time and in 1931 began to teach sculpture at Cranbrook Academy, Cranbrook, Mich. His work, at first inspired by Rodin, later became more angular and abstract. Millesgården near Stockholm contains many of his works. He is represented in the United States by the Peace Monument at St. Paul, Minn.; the Fountain of the Meeting of the Waters at St. Louis; a fountain in the Metropolitan Museum; and statues in Rockefeller Center, New York City.

Milles, Carl (1875–1955). Sweden's greatest sculptor. From 1897 to 1904 he lived in Paris, where he worked for a time as assistant to Rodin, then moved to Munich (1904–6), where he was influenced by Hildebrand. In the following two years he lived in Rome, Stockholm, and Austria, then settled at Lidingö, near Stockholm, in 1908. His travels had given him a wide knowledge of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance art, as well as of recent developments, and he forged from these varied influences an eclectic but vigorous style. He is best known for his numerous large-scale fountains, distinguished by rhythmic vitality and inventive figure types (he liked to fuse classical and Nordic types such as tritons and goblins), and sometimes by a grotesque humour. From 1931 to 1945 he was professor of sculpture at the Cranbrook Academy at Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; his work in the USA includes fountains in Chicago, Kansas City, New York, and St Louis. He became an American citizen in 1945 but returned to Sweden in 1951 and died at Lidingö, where his home is now an open-air museum of his work, known as Millesga˚rden.

Milles, Carl (b Lagga, nr. Uppsala, 23 June 1875; b Lidingö, 19 Sept. 1955). Sweden's greatest sculptor. From 1897 to 1904 he lived in Paris, where he worked for a time as assistant to Rodin, then moved to Munich (1904–6), where he was influenced by Hildebrand. In the following two years he lived in Rome, Stockholm, and Austria, then settled at Lidingö, near Stockholm, in 1908. His travels had given him a wide knowledge of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance art, as well as of recent developments, and he forged from these varied influences an eclectic but vigorous style. He is best known for his numerous large-scale fountains, distinguished by rhythmic vitality and inventive figure types (he liked to fuse classical and Nordic types such as tritons and goblins), and sometimes by a grotesque humour. From 1931 to 1945 he was professor of sculpture at the Cranbrook Academy at Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; his work in the USA includes fountains in Chicago, Kansas City, New York, and St Louis. He became an American citizen in 1945 but returned to Sweden in 1951 and died at Lidingö, where his home is now an open-air museum of his work, known as Millesgården.