Details

Description
Grand Prix winner at the Paris Exposition in 1925.In the middle of a sunken ornamental pool on the upper terrace of Millesgården, stands a key work by Carl Milles, the Susanna Fountain. The sculpture is hewn from one solid block of black granite in the compact style with smooth surfaces and soft contours that is characteristic of Carl Milles’ work from this period. The granite is from Glimåkra in southern Sweden. The well is from the 1940’s.Many of Carl Milles’ sculptures are placed in fountains or pools, and Milles was often inspired by stories from the Bible, astrology or Greek mythology.The Susanna Fountain or Susanna Well portrays a married woman from a story in the Old Testament. One day, when Susanna went to bathe in the garden, she was harassed by two elders. When Susanna refused to comply with their wishes, they took their revenge by accusing her of infidelity, claiming that a young man had accompanied her when she bathed. Susanna is sentenced to death but is later proved innocent when both men are revealed as liars.

Literature
Erik Näslund: Carl Milles – en biografi, Förlags AB Wiken 1991, comp. page 122, 334 with Elisabeth Lidén: Between Water and Heaven, Stockholm 1986, page 3 and Meyric Rogers, R: Carl Milles, New Haven 1940, page 64, plate 10 A-B and Henrik Cornell: Carl Milles, SAK 1963, page 48