International studio (41.1910)

Carl Milles, Swedish Sculptor

The "Villa Porsche," the hall of which is illus- A SWEDISH SCULPTOR : CARL
trated on the preceding page, is a smaller building, /\ MILLES. BY AUGUST BRU-

/A1

situated in the town of Wiener-Neustadt, some / % NIUS
25 miles south of Vienna. The outward form is
excellent in its proportions, its style again fitting Sculpture is not, in the truest sense of the
into the landscape. There are but two floors, and term, the glory and pride of modern Swedish art
there is no basement owing to the condition of the as painting is. The temperament of the] people,
soil. The hall, though small, is of a pleasing design, and the character of the landscape itself, do not
the wood used being natural larch of a pale yellow conduce to the development of a plastic tendency,
tone. Leading from it are the dining and living but stimulate the growth of eminently picturesque
rooms, as also the staircase to the upper storey, qualities. The painter can find an endless source of
which contains the bedrooms, bathrooms, and inspiration in the rugged, broken line of wood and
other offices. hill, ever changing from plain to crag, from dark

Herr Sobotka received his professional training pine forests to lovely groves of foliage, from the
at the Imperial Technical College, Vienna, after- turbulent, open sea to little smiling lakes; but in
wards proceeding to Berlin, where he did practical all this there is little, if any, incentive to the
work under the late Professor Messel. sculptor, and in the same way the transition from

repressed power and
phlegm to impetuous

_ outbursts of national

H mm character does not

■\ Jm seem so well to favour

_ _ B\ that compact, clear

^^^6Sjifkj^iii^r//fffU^SsKSk H^aa^TT.,, : character of form which

is a necessary condi-
tion for the genesis of

mm mm mm rm mm m m 1 a great sculptural art.

J HI mm mm mu L-H mm UJ1 Lm | And yet Sweden can

call some of the great-
est Scandinavian
sculptors its own. The
name of Thorwaldsen,
the Dane, has had a
more^wide-world repu-
tation than that of the
Swede, Sergei; but
modern art history has
been prone to depre-
ciate much of the
a former's greatness in

placing Sergei higher

Son the ladder of fame,
as an artist with a
more refined sense of
form, and as a less
slavish imitator of the
antique. During the
latter half of the nine-
J teenth century Per

I Hasselberg had a

dominating influence
in Swedish art, and
towards the close of

HAUS NEUMANN," KONIGINHOF : SIDE ELEVATION. FRANZ SOBOTKA, ARCHITECT the Century One of hlS