Carl Milles
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Celebration to the automobil
Signed Carl Milles. Foundry mark Herman Bergman Fud. Bronze, green patina. Height 96 cm.
Provenance
Sold at Bukowskis International Spring auction, 1996, auction no 500, cat.no 195.
More information
A version of "Celebration to the automobile" was commissioned by General Motors for the World' Fair in Chicago in 1933. That sculpture was executed in plaster and would presumably have been cast in bronze and eventually placed in General Motors's permanent collection. Instead of a car, the man in the sculpture was holding a connecting rod. In the news articles of that period, the sculpture went under the name of "Inspiration." Neither of the two ever received the bronze casting and the present lot is the only one of its kind known to exist today.
Designer
Carl Milles was a Swedish sculptor born in Lägga. He studied at the Technical School in Stockholm, at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Auguste Rodin and on study trips to Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. In Paris he came to stay for many years and made a living as an ornament carver. He studied the animals in the Jardin des Plantes (the Zoological Garden) and was strongly influenced by Auguste Rodin. Milles made a breakthrough with a monument to Sten Sture in Uppsala. He exhibited at the World's Fair in 1900 and was later given a solo exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London. Milles was professor of modeling at the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm. Well-known sculptures in public places signed by Carl Milles are the "Gustav Vasa" statue at the Nordic Museum, "Orfeusgruppen" outside the concert hall in Stockholm and the "Poseidonfontänen" in Gothenburg.
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