Carl Milles

(1875-1955)

Europa and the Bull 31 in. (78.7 cm.) high

Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, Sweden, acquired from the artist, 1950s.
Conner Rosenkranz, New York.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1988.

Literature
"An Exhibition of the Work of Carl Milles," The Architect & Building News, London, February 25, 1927, vol. CXVII, no. 3036, p. 357, monumental version listed.
A. Palmgren, ed., Sweden: A Guide for Tourists, with 161 Illustrations, 8 Plans, and 10 Maps, Stockholm, 1929, p. 20, another example listed. (as Europa on Bull)
M.P. Verneuil, Carl Milles: sculpteur suédois, Paris and Brussels, 1929, vol. 1, pp. 54-55, pls. 32-33, another example illustrated.
S. Casson, XXth Century Sculptors, Oxford and London, 1930, pp. xi, 39, fig. 4, another example illustrated.
Orrefors Review, Nybro, 1949, p. 3, another example listed.
A. Westholm, Milles: En Bok om Carl Milles Konst, Stockholm, 1949, p. 52-53, figs. 36-38, another example illustrated. (as The Europa Fountain)
H. Cornell, Carl Milles and The Milles Gardens, Stockholm, 1957, pp. 18-19, 21, 28, nos. 13-17, 74, monumental version illustrated.
Cranbrook Academy of Art, Milles at Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1961, n.p., monumental version illustrated.
H. Cornell, Carl Milles Hans Werk, Sveriges, 1963, pp. 56, 58-59, 234, another example listed.
M.R. Rogers, Carl Milles: An Interpretation of His Work, Port Washington, New York, 1973, pp. 25, 52, 65, 69, pls. 33-37, no. 58a, monumental version illustrated.
R. Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery, London, 1981, pp. 518-19, another example illustrated.
E. Lidén, Between Water and Heaven: Carl Milles Search for American Commissions, Stockholm and Montclair, New Jersey, 1986, pp. 1, 13, 125, monumental version illustrated.
C. Milles, K.A. Arvidsson, ed., Carl Milles: Episodes of My Life, Stockholm, 1991, pp. 15, 24, monumental version illustrated.
E. Näslund, Carl Milles: en biografi, Sweden, 1991, pp. 192-95, another example illustrated.
Palazzo Reale, Carl Milles, exhibition catalogue, Venice, 1994, n.p., no. 14, another example illustrated. (as Europa e il Toro)
D.A. Nawrocki, D. Clements, Art in Detroit Public Places, Detroit, 1999, revised ed., pp. 168-69, 178, no. E-13, monumental version illustrated.
K.B. Eckert, B. Korab, R.M. Gavin, Jr., Cranbrook: An Architectural Tour, New York, 2001, pp. 96, 115, 119, 121, monumental version illustrated.
D.A. Nawrocki, D. Clements, Art in Detroit Public Places, Detroit, 2008, third ed., pp. 200-202, E-13, monumental version illustrated.
S. Allgardh, E. Bergund, O. Wass, M. Wiberg, G. Wittkoff, The Home and Art of Carl Milles, Latvia, 2016, p. 53, monumental version illustrated.

Other examples of this version can be found in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 32.288), the Detroit Institute of Art (accession no. 29.357.A), the Tate Gallery, London (reference no. N04247), the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts (object no. 1929.108), the Millesgården Museum, Lidingö, Sweden, and previously in the renowned Wolf Family Collection of American sculpture, which their version was also cast by Herman Bergman Foundry.

Renowned for his expressive, monumental bronze fountains, Carl Milles was one of the preeminent sculptors working in the United States and Sweden during the first half of the 20th century. Milles' Europa and the Bull is considered the most iconic work in his oeuvre that beautifully exhibits both his affinity for traditional motifs and technical abilities as a master modeler. Born in Lagga, Sweden in 1875, Milles began his studies in 1892 apprenticing under a cabinet maker and attending classes at the Technical School of Stockholm. In 1897, Milles moved to Paris where he lived for several years, supporting himself as a cabinet maker while studying at the École des Beaux-Arts and working in Auguste Rodin's (1840-1917) studio. Milles began to receive recognition as a sculptor at the Paris Salons and spent the next several years traveling to Munich, Holland, and Belgium to expand his studies. By 1906, Milles returned to Sweden and along with his wife Olga, they acquired a property above lake Värtan on the island of Lidingö. Known today as Millesgården, this would be where over the course of the next fifty years the Milles family would build a home, space for artists' studios, and a sculpture garden. Milles enjoyed a successful career upon his return to Sweden, receiving major commissions at a time when many metropolitan centers were expanding and modernizing. During this period, Milles also became professor of modelling at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm from 1920 to 1931, further advancing his stature.

In 1921, the city of Halmstad received funds for a fountain to be installed in the Stora Torg and subsequently announced a competition for its design. Finding the submissions received insufficient, the authorities of the design committee turned to Milles to produce a fountain of their liking. This would be Milles' first large fountain commission and for the project, he quickly settled on a design of Europa and the Bull that would be placed centrally in a large fountain surrounded by four Tritons spewing water at the fountain's corners. The myth of Europa and the Bull is one of the most iconic from Greek mythology that was popularly studied and portrayed by Milles' contemporaries of the early 20th century, such as by Paul Manship (1885-1966) in his infamous The Flight of Europa (1925) among other sketches and models he produced on the subject.

For five years Milles sketched and modeled extensively to create his perfect vision of the moment the Phoenician princess Europa was abducted by the god Zeus, who transformed himself into a beautiful white bull and carried her across the sea of Crete to become his consort and the mother of his three sons. As seen in the present work and the monumental version, Milles skillfully contrasts the masculine strength of the powerful bull and the feminine beauty of the graceful Europa to create a balanced tension between the two forms. Milles' sculpture is often defined by its sense of movement and Europa's fluttering cloak and gaze elegantly conveys this. The Royal Court foundry Lauritz Rasmussen in Copenhagen was awarded the job to cast the sculpture group and the grouping including Europa och Tjuren or Europa and the Bull were finally delivered to Halmstad in 1926.

Milles would continue to work and exhibit in Sweden and across Europe until 1931 when he moved to the United States to accept a position as Professor of Sculpture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield, Michigan thanks to the recommendation of newspaper publisher George Gough Booth (1864-1949). While at Cranbrook, Milles worked with architect and friend Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950) to design the grounds, which included a large fountain featuring reproductions of the monumental Europa and the Bull and the Triton figures spewing water that still stand today as proud fixtures of Cranbrook. Milles became a United States citizen in 1945 and remained in Michigan teaching at Cranbrook until 1951. However, he still spent summers in Sweden at Millesgården from 1945 until his death in 1955. While working in the United States, Milles produced his most monumental works and is recognized today as a significant contributor to the lexicon of American sculpture produced during the first half of the 20th century.