Young Elk

Carl Milles, L. Rasmussen

Dark green-patinated bronze, including stone pedestal. Foundry mark L. Rasmussen, Copenhagen. Executed 1925-1926. PROVENANCE Stockholms Auktionsverk, Classical sale, 25 November 2009, cat no 2129. Baron Erik Palmstierna (1877-1959). The Baron, diplomat, minister, etc., Erik Palmstierna, who was a close friend of Carl and Olga Milles, received the sculpture as a gift from the artist couple in 1953. He brought it with him to England, where it was previously placed in the garden of his house in Ewelme, near Oxford. LITERATURE The institution-owned examples of Ung älg are mentioned and depicted in, among others, the following literature: M. P. Verneuil, Carl Milles. Sculpteur Suédois, Brussels 1929, cf. plate no 36. Meyric R. Rogers, Carl Milles. An interpretation of his work, New Haven, USA, 1940, cf. catalogue no 62, the motif mentioned on p 52, cf. plate 31A and 31B. Henric Cornell, Carl Milles. Hans verk, Stockholm 1963, cf. image p 123. Gunila Klosterborg, Millesgården, Lidingö 1979, cf. catalogue no 36. Erik Näslund, Carl Milles – en biografi, Höganäs 1991, the motif mentioned in the catalogue of works, p. 335. Göran Söderlund, Millesgården, Lidingö 1999, cf. catalogue no 94. Carl Milles' interest in animal motifs runs as a clear line through his entire artistry. Particularly prominent are the monumentally shaped animals, which appear both as independent sculptures and as parts of larger, often mythologically characterized groups. Already during the first years of the 20th century, he was fascinated by powerful and heavy animals such as elephants, wild boars, bears, and bison. Prehistoric animals also stimulated his imagination, which was expressed, among other things, in the never-completed group Plesiosaurs (1903–04). During the same period, he also created several animal sculptures for public environments in Stockholm, including Playing Bears (1909) at the entrance to Berzelii Park and Eagles (1909–10) in the palace park of Waldemarsudde. During the 1920s, Milles returned repeatedly to the pure animal motif. Several of these works were integrated into larger thematic contexts, such as the smaller deer and wild boars in the Diana Fountain at the Matchstick Palace in central Stockholm. At the same time, he also created animal sculptures intended to be experienced as independent works. One example is the large sitting wild boars from 1929, commissioned by the English Lord Melchett and later purchased by the Swedish Royal Family for placement in the park of Ulriksdal Palace. Young Elk also belongs to this period, which is counted among Milles' monumental animal sculptures from the 1920s. The motif seems to have arisen spontaneously, sprung from the artist's free imagination in combination with his interest in Nordic big game. At the same time, the work's form and expression – where the stretching and twisting of the animal's body play a central role – show a conscious artistic investigation. The strongly twisted form recurs in several of his works from the same time and later, such as The Conversion of St. Paul (1926) and Folke Filbyter (1927). Young Elk exists in three other known examples in the field. In addition, an unknown number of smaller versions exist. The American art historian Meyric R. Rogers has described the work as "… one of the most interesting of the sculptor's conventionalized treatments of animal form"