Carl Vilhelm Emil Milles

Overall the condition of the bronze is very good with some minor wear to the patina consistent with age.
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The Swedish sculptor Carl Milles worked in Paris, Munich, the United States and Rome after beginning his studies in Stockholm. During his stay in Paris from 1897 to 1904 he was deeply influenced by the work of Auguste Rodin. He moved to the States in 1931 and taught sculpture at Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, returning to Sweden four years before his death in 1955.

Milles' fountains are amongst his best-known works and the present bronze group relates to two of these monumental groups - his Orpheus fountain in Stockholm and his Wedding of the Waters fountain in St Louis, Missouri. Both feature energised elongated figures stepping forth balanced on jagged waves. Orpheus has a ring of such male and female figures around the gigantic figure of Orpheus, whilst the Missouri fountain shows a man and woman approaching one another across the water. Both the reference to the fountain figures and the bringing together of the male and female forms make the present group emblematic of Milles' oeuvre.

RELATED LITERATURE
M. P. Verneuil, Carl Milles: Sculpteur Suédois, Paris, 1929