MILLES, CARL

born June 23, 1875, Uppsala, Swed. died Sept. 19, 1955, Liding original name Wilhelm Carl Emil Andersson, one of Sweden's greatest sculptors, whose expressive rhythmical works drew inspiration from European archaic sculpture and greatly influenced the course of German Expressionist and American sculpture during the first half of the 20th century. In 1902, during student years in Paris, Milles won recognition through the competition for the Sten Sture monument at Uppsala (completed 1925). His style, at first impressionistic under the influence of the late 19th-century French sculptor Auguste Rodin, became more abrupt and formal under the successive influences of medieval and early Greek art as interpreted by the German sculptor-theorist Adolf von Hildebrand. Later, Milles' work showed more fluent patterns within the individual figures of his elaborate compositions. Milles worked in clay (for casting into bronze) and in stone and wood. His first major fountain, Europa, in Halmstad, Swed. (1926), has the elements of spacious design, subtle water effects, and inventive figure types (such as the fusion of classical triton or faun with Nordic goblin or troll)also characteristic of his Orpheus Fountain in Stockholm (1936) and the Meeting of the Waters in St. Louis, Mo. (1940). In 1931 he became head of the department of sculpture at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and he became a U.S. citizen in 1945. Milles' works were collected at Cranbrook, his home for 20 years, and at the Milles villa, now a museum, in Liding, near Stockholm. His Aganippe Fountain was set up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, shortly after his death in 1955.