Levitating fantasies of Carl Milles
Stockholm has a suburban island called Lidingo. It is linked with the mainland by a bridge under which seagoing vessels pass. On the high western coast of the island which opens a view on the capital city there is one of the main Stockholm sights which any tourist should be blamed for not seeing. It is called Millesgorden. “Gord” is translated into Russian as farmstead. It resembles Russian “grad” or town. Etymologic kinship is not excluded as Russians and Vikings had good contacts. Milles means Carl Milles, world renowned sculptor and one of the main inhabitants of the Swedish Pantheon of Arts.
When you drive to the island across the Lidingo bridge you can see Millesgorden – the house of Milles – on your right although it is difficult as the building is far away and coalesces with the landscape. When you arrive to the farmstead it is hard to comprehend the kaleidoscope of feelings that hit you like a sea wave. Stockholm is a quiet city while life on the island is completely still. I believe it much better reflects the immediate metamorphosis taking place when you step into the temple of arts.
Like any temple Millesgorden is located on a hill that sharply cuts into the sea. There are railings at the edge saving tourists from a fall and helping them quietly admire the view. If the day is bright and the sun is shining you can imagine the Baltic, Aegean of Black Sea that wash the warm coasts of Europe. You are surrounded by statues – bronze, marble, fullsize or colossal that stand in open air surrounded by trees and bushes. Those who were in Koktebeil will definitely recall something from Maximilian Voloshin who praised the antique beauty of nature best of all.
Nip yourself to wake up and forget sweet southern voices and look at the masterpieces by a Scandinavian genius. They fill in his own museum which he created for himself and handed over to the people as a gift.
Carl Milles collected his farmstead by pieces. In 1905 he married Olga Gunner, an Austrian artist who he met in Paris in 1899. He bought a plot of land on the Herserud Mountain and the couple planned to build a house with a studio there. Construction was completed in 1908 and in the ’20s there was a possibility to buy another plot of land which bordered on the existing one. The expansion allowed the Milles couple to create a spacious natural park which anyone wishing can come to admire.
Milles for the first time thought of arranging a museum when he was in France where every “decent artist” has a duty to go to train skills, feel the atmosphere, communicate with colleagues and make acquaintances. His biographer Eric Neslund said Milles wrote in a letter to his future wife about plans to turn the Paris studio into a museum. When the couple bought land and began construction the idea was definitely there.
“The reason why I want to implement the idea despite major costs is that I want to leave something beautiful after me,” Milles wrote to a friend in the year he completed the house.
Milles for the first time thought of arranging a museum when he was in France where he thought he had a duty to go to train skills and feel the atmosphere.
Two nourishing elements for Milles
It was not occasional that Milles chose the coast. The house stands on a cliff over an abyss exactly like the villa of well-known industrialist Ernest Thiel dashed up into the sky in full compliance with Nietzsche’s imperative. The sea view offers an eternal source of ideas and inspiration for any man of arts. “You can hardly imagine how grandiose the sea is,” Milles wrote to Olga from Normandy. “I can see nothing but the blue-green sea and air. . . It is the same water which washes the coasts of America, the same waves which flow the coast of England, Spain, Portugal, the same salt as in the waters around Africa.”
Water and air are the two elements that nourished Milles. He wanted his sculptures to overcome terrestrial gravity, break free from it and levitate over the world and water. He achieved it. You get the feeling when you first see them. . .
Carl Emil Wilheim Milles was born on June 23, 1875 in a place called Lagga not far from Uppsala into a family of a military man. His actual family name was Andersson which is as common as Ivanov and Petrov in Russia. According to biographers, the father was a strict and tough man who loved arts and strived for romanticism. However grownup Milles remembered that in childhood he only feared the man.
Despite such an attitude of the son the father deserves a brief narration mostly due to his character. Poorness did not allow August Emil Sebastian Andersson finish school and like many teenagers he went to work at sea where he spent six years. He studied in free hours and back home successfully passed exams in a Stockholm male college and even made headlines.
The education exploit of the young seafarer was noticed by the Royal court of his Majesty King Carl XV: Emil Andersson was invited to the highest audience. He entered the Carlberg military school as a result. Five years later the young officer requested a transfer to serve in the French army and in July 1868 was enlisted into the Imperial Versailles Chaser Guards battalion. He then served in Algeria, participated in skirmishes with Arab tribes, and in war with Germany. He was wounded, recovered in hospital, was in German captivity and escaped. He returned to Sweden and was enlisted in the Royal Upland Regiment and married Valborg Maria Tessel, a daughter of a chemist. In 1874 his father-in-law helped him buy Erbu mansion in Lagga where future sculptor Carl Milles was born a year later. By that time they already had two-year daughter Ruth and another son, Stig, was born four years later. The mother then dies of scarlet fever. The father married Olga Setrin after some time who gave birth to three more children. The previous father-in-law was outraged by neglect to the memory of his daughter and recalled all mortgage bonds he provided for the mansion of the son-in-law. Emil Andersson had to declare himself broke. He left Erbu, retired and resettled to Goteborg.
As a complete Francophil Emil Andersson provided French education to his children. As well as food habits. He also worked to develop artistic interests in them. Milles recalled that the father put his four-six-year old children on his knees and spoke about great artists, showed reproductions of their paintings – Michelangelo, Raphael, Bramante, Donatello, Verrocchio.
Small Carl had poor health and suffered from asthma and rickets which exhausted all his forces. It was difficult for him to study in school. Asthma impeded his breath when he had to read out loud, other disciplines were of no interest to him and some were even hated. For example, history which made him constantly memorize various dates. In Stockholm Milles lived in the apartment of his father’s acquaintance who did not care about his school marks and the boy was thrown upon his own resources in the studies. Quite often Carl went to the seaport in the morning to watch vessels and dream of sailing to distant countries. He talked to sailors all of who promised to take him with them but none has fulfilled the promise.
When the father learned about the son’s passion for the sea and recalled his own youth
and took the boy to a ship’s doctor for examination whether he is fit for maritime
service. The doctor said the boy was too small and weak for any work at sea.
Most of all Carl enjoyed wood cutting in school. At the age of 14 he made a violin.
However a year later he failed to produce a single sound from it. The father thought his son was silly because of bad marks. “What for am I punished with elder son an idiot!” Milles heard him telling his new wife.
In the final end Emil decided to send his son to a carpenter who had a workshop in Stockholm. Carl had to go to furniture clients, boil glue, polish wooden surfaces, and shop for food. At the same time he went to a technical evening school. He designed furniture there, sculptured in plaster which helped him make a new step – enter an artistic-industrial college.
Upon graduation in 1897 and receiving a scholarship of 200 kronas Carl decided to go to Paris. By that time he already worked independently and together with a friend from the technical school was engaged in refined artistic cutting of oak stair posts for a villa in the capital city and made small wooden sculptures which he sold to local jewelers. He was attracted to Paris by the dreams of creative future and the desire to break free into a big world from family bonds and poor living conditions.
Water and air are the two elements that nourished Milles. He wanted his sculptures to overcome terrestrial gravity, break free from it and levitate over the world and water .
How Andersson became Milles
At that time France was the world center of sculpture. Numerous artists worked there and even more graduated from various artistic schools. When Milles arrived in Paris everybody there spoke about Auguste Rodin, a contradicting genius of the time and an artistic titan today. The destiny favored the young Swede and he soon met the master and became his assistant. The acquaintance gave a lot to the beginning sculptor. Rodin had numerous projects but did not do the rough stone cutting himself and entrusted it to disciples and assistants. It was the first assignment of Carl. However it was not by chance that he was invited to the studio. Rodin saw his works and liked them. He himself did not become a sculptor at once and in young years earned his living as a decorator, including at the Sevres porcelain factory. He won recognition in mature age.
Like Milles Rodin neglected schoolwork (although the comparison should be vice versa as Rodin was older than Milles when they met). He was not interested in anything but drawing. In the final end he convinced his father to send him to a school that trained artists, jewelers, decorators and the like. The skills he acquired helped him make both ends meet much longer than Milles earned a living as wood cutter. However should we think about bad marks, neglected schoolwork, torn pants and bonks when we admire The Thinker, The Kiss, Orpheus, the Man and Pegasus? They are only the undercoat for magnificent works.
Speaking about Milles’ life in Paris we have to explain his family name which differs from the original of his father and relatives. Carl Andersson himself invented the new name. Mille was the short name for Emil and kids were called “Milles barn” or the children of Mille. In France the young Swede communicated with men of arts and wanted to look French. The generalized Milles barn phrase fitted properly for it as it sounded French. He moved the word stress to the second syllable and called himself Carl Milles to the end of his life.
Milles won acclaim as a sculptor for the monument to the regent of Sweden, Sten Sture, the fighter for independence related to secession from the Kalmar Union. In 1471 he routed the Danish army of King Christian I in the battle of Brunkeberg. In 1871, during celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the event, it was decided to perpetuate the memory of the outstanding personality. However thirty years had to pass for decisions to begin implementing.
A contest for the monument was announced in 1901. Carl Milles who lived in Paris at the time decided to bid and compete with three other sculptors. Next year the commission announced its decision and Milles’ project was the last in the list. It was a failure and there was no use to argue. However “broad public” of students supported Milles and said the decision was unfair as Milles’ project was the best. They accused commission members of bias and demanded to review contest results. A new commission was appointed and awarded the victory to Milles and ordered a sketch.
It took a long time for the stone Sten Sture to emerge in the center of Uppsala. Twenty-three years passed. The monument was unveiled in 1925. Wisecrackers joked: too much stone, too little Sture. In Swedish “sten” means stone. Anyway the monument brought first acclaim to Milles.
Another major work was the sculpture of the most distinguished Swedish King Gustav Vasa, the reformist liberator. In contrast to other sculptures Milles produced a colored statue. His wife Olga did the painting. A plaster sketch was made in 1905. At that time the construction of the Nordic Museum was underway. It is another major sight of Stockholm which is more impressive by the exterior of a magnificent castle rather than by the interior .
It is actually a natural history museum. As natural history is of interest to schoolchildren and experts the museum does not attract major tourist flows. Architect Isaac Gustav Clason was excited by Milles’ Vasa and wanted it to stay in the center hall and be there on the opening day of the museum. He asked the sculptor to do that.
When the doors of the museum opened in 1907 the visitors were welcomed by great
six-meter high polychrome king whose name is very popular in the country. He sat on a golden throne mounted on a big pedestal dressed in gala gold-red attire. One hand rested on a sword while the other showed a fist to confirm his serious intentions. The king was made of plaster which is non-durable material. It was suggested to make the same Vasa from wood, preferably oak as its lasts for centuries. However the plans demanded major financing which was difficult to find. The wooden monarch replaced the plaster one only in 1925. Today he continues to welcome visitors in the castle that is also a museum which can be quite disappointing for the king.
Personal exhibition held in London’s Tate in 1927 was an important landmark for Milles which brought him international fame. Its repercussions went as far as overseas.
Creativity as eternity
Milles visited the United States for the first time in 1929. Biographers said he and his wife considered emigrating there and resettled in 1931. The decision was prompted by the warm welcome to the sculptor in America, on the one hand, and Olga’s dislike of Sweden where she lacked comfort, on the other. The couple settled down in Blumfield Hills suburb of Detroit. The Cranbrook Foundation artistic school there offered Milles to head the sculpture desk. He worked there for 20 years. In 1945 Carl and Olga obtained U.S. citizenship, but in the ’50s decided to go back to Europe. This time they chose Rome for residence (which is only natural for a sculptor if he does not plan to live in his native country). Grateful Cranbrook Foundation provided them an apartment with a studio and promised to pay for it up to the end of their life.
From 1945 the Milles visited Millesgorden mostly in summer. By that time the house, the park and other buildings were handed over to the people as a gift. It was their northern Hellas with naiads, tritons, Orpheus, sea shells, playful dolphins and other “wave-runners”.
Flight, ascent from the earth were likely the main distinguishing traits of Milles style.
The change in the initial Milles style was over by 1913. At least art experts and biographers say that. He stuck to strict and direct lines before, but later his works acquired traits of Greek antiquity. He specifically stressed the silhouette and raised the sculptures high into the air . Flight, ascent from the earth were likely the main distinguishing traits of Milles style. If you look at the angels with musical instruments sculptural group in Millesgorden you can see that the winged figures have only touched columns with toes for a second and will jump up again as butterflies to the air to play pipes and tubes.
I am personally most impressed by Milles’ sculpture Man and Pegasus which stands in the Palace Park of Malmo. The horse and the man are united in audacious flight to the home of Gods – Olympus. There are not a horse and a horseman, but two equal creatures flying close to each other. The man only slightly touches Pegasus’ wing with his foot while the horse touches the pedestal with its wing. There are no other supports which creates an absolute illusion of a flight. As many others the sculpture is mounted high above ground and people see both figures in the sky. In bright weather the blue sky personifies eternity .
Milles’ love for water is seen in abounding fountains the design of which is linked to water. Most famous are the Aganippe fountain named after an ancient Greek mythology nymph which Milles made for the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and Orpheus fountain standing at the entrance to the Concert Hall in Stockholm where Nobel Prizes are awarded. The sculptural group of the fountain comprises nine statues. The face of one of it resembles Beethoven which is not accidental as for Milles the composer personified artistic genius to which he strived himself. Some of the critics called Orpheus “a sculptural expression of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony”. They say Milles was particularly pleased with the praise.
He was extremely exuberant in creativity. To understand everything you do not have to go to all cities and countries where his sculptures stand. It is enough to come to Millesgorden. He is buried in the museum he created himself. Narration about Milles will not be complete if we forget one not very noble corner of his inside world – political views which manifested themselves in good attitude to German Nazism and Italian Fascism.
Milles’ biographers began to speak about that side of his life only in the ’90s. Before that they bypassed it either because of unwillingness to offend relatives and close kin or due to friendly relations with Milles. Now there is a series of research of political and ideological outlooks of the artist. The author of the most complete biography Eric Neslund explains Milles’ sympathies to Nazism and Fascism by their attitude to artistic esthetics. Well, experts have to decide whether it is true or not.
I do not know what Carl Milles said and whether he said anything at all about Nazism after the end of the war when the world learned the full horror of its crimes. Anyway, it is his personal life, a trait of character, the line of fate. . .
Mikhail Busnyuk,
for Amber Bridge