Born June 23, 1875, in Lagga, near Uppsala; died Sept. 19, 1955, in Stockholm. Swedish sculptor (worked in the US A from 1931).
Milles studied in Paris from 1897 to 1904 and in Munich in 1905 and 1906. From 1920 to 1931 he was a professor at the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm. His work was influenced by A. Rodin, and by archaic Greek and medieval sculpture. Shortly before 1920, Milles turned to monumental decorative sculpture, primarily fountains. Attempting to tie in his sculpture with both architecture and the natural setting, he often used ostentatious devices. Milles’ fountains, which are based generally on mythological subjects, are noted for complexity of design, heroic form, and a distinctive picturesque quality created largely by the streams of water (Poseidon, 1930, Goteborg; Orpheus, 1936, Stockholm; Meeting of the Waters, 1940, St. Louis, USA—all in bronze).