Visual art
Carl Milles
1875–1955 · sculptor
Swedish sculptor who spent twenty years as Cranbrook's sculptor-in-residence, filling its gardens with fountains and leaving works in Detroit and Ann Arbor.
- Born
Lagga, Sweden- Died
Lidingö, Sweden
aged 80- Birth name
- Carl Emil Wilhelm Andersson
- Detroit years
- 1931–1951
- Field
- Visual art
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Milles was already Sweden's best-known sculptor when George Gough Booth brought him to Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills in 1931 as sculptor-in-residence and head of the academy's sculpture department. He stayed for two decades and became an American citizen. Booth bought dozens of his works, and the campus became an open-air gallery of Milles bronzes: the Orpheus Fountain in front of the art museum, Jonah and the Whale, the Triton pools and many smaller figures. He trained a generation of American sculptors, among them Marshall Fredericks, and made public works for the region, including the Spirit of Transportation relief for Detroit's civic center (1952) and the Sunday Morning in Deep Waters fountain on the University of Michigan's Ingalls Mall. A casting of his Hand of God stands at Detroit's Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. In 1951 he returned to Millesgården, his home near Stockholm, where he died and is buried.
Highlights
- Sculptor-in-residence at Cranbrook, 1931–1951
- Cranbrook holds one of the largest Milles collections outside Sweden
- Orpheus Fountain (1936) and Jonah and the Whale fountain at Cranbrook
- Spirit of Transportation (1952) for Detroit's civic center
- Teacher of Spirit of Detroit sculptor Marshall Fredericks
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1931–1951
Cranbrook Academy of Art and Cranbrook Art Museum (Orpheus Fountain)
Where he lived, taught and placed dozens of sculptures and fountains across the campus.
Worked here
The Hand of God – Frank Murphy Hall of Justice
A casting of his sculpture of a man rising from a giant hand, dedicated to Justice Frank Murphy.
Worked here · 1939–1941
Sunday Morning in Deep Waters fountain, Ingalls Mall
His fountain in front of the university's Rackham Building.