CARL MILLES. Sculpture, green and brown patinated bronze.

"Europe", signed C. Milles. Casting stamp Herman Bergman fud, height 60 cm Carl Milles is today considered one of our foremost sculptors in modern times. He was born in 1875 in Lagga parish, the son of a father who was a major and a mother who four years later died in childbed. After finishing school, Carl Milles went as a carpenter's apprentice. In the evenings he studied at the Technical School in Stockholm. In 1897 he received a scholarship from the Swedish Crafts Association which took him to Paris. There he combined work with studies. And in Paris he also replaced his original surname Andersson with the more French-friendly Milles. Around the turn of the century in 1900, he returned to Stockholm and soon received several larger commissions. After a couple of years in Germany, he returned once more to Stockholm and at the beginning of the 1910s he increasingly sought inspiration in the aesthetics of Greek antiquity. During the following decade, he received the title of professor at the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1929 he visited the United States for the first time and just two years later he moved there. In the United States, he performed several public works. The last of these, the Sankt Martins fountain, attracted some attention as an angel in the group of figures wears a wristwatch. Carl Milles died in 1955.

Today, his public monumental works can be found in a wide range of places in Sweden but also in the United States, where he was active for a time.

This copy has a foundry stamp from Herman Bergman Konstgjuteri. The company was registered in 1895 and transformed nine years later into a limited company. Bergman led this company until his death in 1954, when the sons took over. The company, which is still active today, has since the early years held a dominant position within art foundry in Sweden. For a time, industrial items and table lamps were also manufactured here.

Literature: Cornell, Henrik: "Mille's beauty world", 1957, compare images 13-17.
Verneuil, M. P.: "Sculpteur Suédois", 1929, compare plates 32 and 33.
Näslund, Erik: "Carl Milles - a biography", 1991, page 335 (Europe and the bull).