Carl Milles

Carl Wilhelm Emil Andersson was born on June 23, 1875, in Lagga, near Uppsala. Studying in Paris, he worked in the studio of Auguste Rodin, absorbing Rodin's muscular dynamism before forging his own monumental archaic style inspired by classical Greece and Nordic mythology.

Milles became the supreme master of bronze fountain sculpture, suspending weightless, soaring figures above jets of water. His masterpieces include the colossal Poseidon in Gothenburg (1931), the Orpheus Well outside the Stockholm Concert Hall (1936), and the Meeting of the Waters in St. Louis, Missouri. From 1931 to 1951, he was sculptor-in-residence at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. His clifftop home and sculpture terrace on Lidingö, Millesgården, is one of Scandinavia's most sublime open-air museums.