Details

Venus seated on a shell was modeled during a period when Milles spent much time investigating how to form and shape water creatures surrounded by water in a well or a fountain. It was the artist ́s ambition to explore movement and how the sculptures can form a unity with water to create a more dynamic expression. Also influenced by the wartime in many ways he turned to, in his opinion, a lighter mythological world he could understand and admire.


According to the myth, Venus (Greek mythology Aphrodite) was born forth from the froth of the sea and brought ashore in a shell. She is the goddess of love. The sculpture is one of several studies with Venus and a shell that were made for a fountain that was to be placed in front of the Swedish Academy in Stockholm during this period. The fountain was never completed.

Carl Milles had one other big interest, astronomy. He even built a tower on top of his home where he could spend hours watching the stars through his telescope. He used to feel a lot of inspiration coming to him for sketches and sculpture ideas from the constellations and celestial bodies. Besides Venus the year before, in 1916, he created similar sculptures depicting naiads and tritons in Greek mythology, both moons of the planet Neptune.