Carl Milles
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"Kämpande centaurer" (Fighting Centaurs)
Signed Carl Milles. Foundry mark L. Rasmussen, København. The motif conceived 1919. Bronze, green patina. Height 58 cm, length 49 cm, width 25 cm. Marble pedestal, height 132 cm, length 38 cm, width 30.5 cm. Inscription on the pedestal: 20 Sept 1920.
Literature
Erik Näslund, "Carl Milles - en biografi", 1991. The motif is listed in the list of works at p. 335.
More information
"Fighting Centaurs"
The sculpture group "Fighting Centaurs" is very rare and only a few examples are known. The composition is hardly mentioned in the literature about Carl Milles' artwork, so very little is known about its origin. Correspondence regarding the sculpture is preserved in the Millesgården archives, where it is referred to as "Fighting Centaurs". One copy is photographed, likely in the 1920s, where it is placed outside Milles' home in Lidingö. Another copy is known to have been cast in 1919 on behalf of Stora Kopparberg Bergslags AB and donated as a gift to Consul General Olof Söderberg and his wife Otilia.
Milles has used the motif of centaurs in other sculptures, including the reliefs on the well basin for the Industrial Monument outside KTH in Stockholm. Milles possibly drew inspiration for the battling centaurs from the reliefs on the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, where the Lapiths fight with the centaurs after they abducted a group of women. In Greek mythology, centaurs are a kind of half-human, half-horse creature that lived in the mountains of Peloponnese. Centaurs are described as wild and unreliable, but also friendly and sometimes even wise.
Artist
Carl Milles was a Swedish sculptor born in Lägga. He studied at the Technical School in Stockholm, at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Auguste Rodin and on study trips to Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. In Paris he came to stay for many years and made a living as an ornament carver. He studied the animals in the Jardin des Plantes (the Zoological Garden) and was strongly influenced by Auguste Rodin. Milles made a breakthrough with a monument to Sten Sture in Uppsala. He exhibited at the World's Fair in 1900 and was later given a solo exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London. Milles was professor of modeling at the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm. Well-known sculptures in public places signed by Carl Milles are the "Gustav Vasa" statue at the Nordic Museum, "Orfeusgruppen" outside the concert hall in Stockholm and the "Poseidonfontänen" in Gothenburg.
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