"Skridskoprinsessan" (=The skater princess)
Signed Carl Milles and stamp signed Carl Milles. Numbered, no 2/6. Dated 1948. Foundry mark Herman Bergman fud. Bronze, dark/green patina, height 67 cm.
This version has been in Millesgården's collection since the casting in 1948 and has been in the music room in Ann's house at Millesgården.
Bukowski's auctions, International Autumn Auction 2005, auction no. 538, catalog no. 235.
Thereafter in a private Swedish collection.
Henrik Cornell, "Carl Milles, hans verk", 1963, the motif listed at p. 258 under the year 1949.
Erik Näslund, "Carl Milles - en biografi", 1991,the motif listed at p. 337 under the year 1949.
The Skating Princess
The Skating Princess by Carl Milles is a fast-paced, lively skating girl, the arms are stretched and the short skirt turns in a piruette. Milles created this bronze in 1949 after seeing a skating girl in Rockefeller Plaza in New York. He became so fond of her movements that he tried to catch them in bronze. The sculpture does not have much in common with Milles heavy themes such as "Man and Pegasus" or "Hand of God" that came together at the same time.
The motif is found at Millesgården.
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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