Carl (Wilhelm Emile) Milles (Swedish/American, 1875-1955) - Small Triton Fountain

Carl Milles was one of the leading sculptors in Sweden during the last quarter of the 19th and first half of the 20th century. It was Cranbrook Academy founder George Booth who is credited with bringing Milles, along with his wife Olga, to Cranbrook in 1931, later purchasing a number of the sculptor’s works three years later (Cranbrook has nearly eighty Milles sculptures in its collection). Milles was Cranbrook’s first sculptor in residence, and he and Olga lived there until 1951.

He frequently found inspiration in Greek and Roman mythology, including Europa and the Bull, Orpheus, and Venus. Naiads, the water nymph daughters of Zeus and Tritons, the sons of Amphitrite and Poseidon, were also favored subjects for Milles, and like many European as well as American sculptors active in the early 20th century, he chose to cast some of these mythological subjects in the form of fountains, as in the present work. Related Triton variants are located in The Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, at Prins Eugens Waldemarssudde, Stockholm, and in the collection of the Mayo Clinic.

Another version of Small Triton Fountain, also executed in 1916, is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

French and Company, New York, New York.

Collection of Edith Brevoort Kane (Mrs. George F. Baker), New York, New York.

A gift from the above in 1954.

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia (accession number 1954.9a-b).