Carl Milles Art for Sale at Auction

Sculptor, b. 1875 - d. 1955

(born Lagga, Sweden 23 June 1875; died Lidingo, Sweden 1955) Swedish sculptor. After graduating from a technical college where he studied woodwork, carving, and modeling in Stockholm, in 1897 Carl Milles moved to Paris and remained there until 1904. While in Paris he studied at the Academie Colarossi and took on various jobs, including working as Rodin’s assistant. He received notable acclaim throughout Sweden when in 1902 he won a competition to design a memorial for the Swedish regent Sten Sture in Upsala. After living in Munich, Rome, Stockholm, and Austria where he further developed his style from 1904-06, Milles settled in Lidingo, Sweden and became a professor of modeling at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm. In 1930 he moved to the United States where he produced numerous monuments throughout the country and was a professor at the Cranbrook College of Fine Arts in Bloomfield Hills, MI. He was able to achieve great artistic success in the US, winning a prize at the Golden Gate Exposition in 1939. Although obtaining US citizenship in 1945, he eventually returned to Lidingo where he remained until his death. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Sculpture Society. Milles is most well known for his imaginative fountain sculpture, which depicts imaginary creatures that are influenced by the early Greek style of German sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand’s work.