The Hand of God is one of the last works of the Swedish sculptor Carl Milles, created to honor the Swedish entrepreneur C. E. Johansson, who revolutionized precision measuring of industrial parts. [1] The original casting stands in Johansson's hometown of Eskilstuna, Sweden. [2]
Carl Milles worked on The Hand of God from 1949 to 1953. [3] The sculptor said the idea of the statue came to him in a dream. [4] During his time in Paris, Carl Milles was influenced by the work of Auguste Renoir, who was also fascinated by hands. [5]
The sculpture was recast and donated by the UAW to the city of Detroit, Michigan, where it stands outside the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice ( 42°20′16″N83°02′34″W / 42.33781°N 83.04274°W ). [6]
In 1957, the Swedish government gave a reproduction of The Hand of God to the royal family of Indonesia, which is exhibited in the gardens of the Bogor Palace. [7] In June 2004, the city of Beijing bought a reproduction of The Hand of God and placed it in the city's International Sculpture Park. [8] A reproduction of The Hand of God is also given as part of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. [9] A reproduction of The Hand of God stands also in the Hakone Open-Air Museum in Hakone, Japan
The statue is of a small naked man - looking upwards, body tensed - standing on the index and thumb of a large hand. The statue stands on a tall, square column. Authentic reproductions are marked with a "Millesgården" tag. [4] The artist provided many different interpretations for this work. [10] One of those reproductions stands in the Hakone Open-Air Museum. [11]
The sketch of the hand was modeled after the artist's left hand. [5]
The Venus de Milo or Aphrodite of Melos is an ancient Greek marble sculpture that was created during the Hellenistic period. Its exact dating is uncertain, but the modern consensus places it in the 2nd century BC, perhaps between 160 and 110 BC. It was rediscovered in 1820 on the island of Milos, Greece, and has been displayed at the Louvre Museum since 1821. Since the statue's discovery, it has become one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture in the world.
Praxiteles of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attica sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubitably attributable sculpture by Praxiteles is extant, numerous copies of his works have survived; several authors, including Pliny the Elder, wrote of his works; and coins engraved with silhouettes of his various famous statuary types from the period still exist.
Carl Milles was a Swedish sculptor. He was married to artist Olga Milles and brother to Ruth Milles and half-brother to the architect Evert Milles. Carl Milles sculpted the Gustaf Vasa statue at the Stockholm Nordic Museum, the Poseidon statue in Gothenburg, the Orpheus group outside the Stockholm Concert Hall, and the Fountain of Faith in Falls Church, Virginia. His home near Stockholm, Millesgården, became his resting place and is now a museum.
Carl Johan Eldh was a Swedish artist and sculptor.
Marshall Maynard Fredericks was an American sculptor known for such works as Fountain of Eternal Life, The Spirit of Detroit, Man and the Expanding Universe Fountain, and many others.
Liljevalchs konsthall is an art gallery located on the Djurgården island in Stockholm, Sweden. Designed by architect Carl Bergsten (1879–1935) and inaugurated in March 1916, it is today owned by the City of Stockholm.
Skeppsbron is both a street and a quay in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm, capital of Sweden, stretching from the bridge Strömbron in front of the Royal Palace southward to Slussen.
The Spirit of Life is a 1914 sculpture in Saratoga Springs, New York, by the American sculptor Daniel Chester French.
The Vision of Peace is a statue in the three-story memorial concourse lobby along the Fourth Street entrance of the Saint Paul City Hall and Ramsey County Courthouse in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. The memorial to the Minnesota 20th-century war dead was created by Swedish sculptor Carl Milles, who named it Indian God of Peace. He drew on memories of a Native American ceremony he witnessed in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Although there is no connection between Native American spirituality and his own vision, Milles depicted five Native Americans seated around a fire holding sacred pipes. Emerging from the smoke of those pipes is a "god of peace" which Milles imagined speaking to "all the world.”
Ira Waite Jayne (1882-1961) was elected to the Wayne County, Michigan Circuit Court bench in 1915 and served as Chief Judge for 27 years of his 37 years working for the court. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1905 and from the Detroit College of Law. He was the attorney for The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Detroit. He developed the boarding home plan replacing orphanages.
The Aviator Monument is a statue that stands at Karlaplan in central Stockholm, Sweden. The statue was a gift from the Swedish Aeronautical Society in memory of different Swedish aviation pioneers who fell in both the North Pole expedition of 1898 and in the Swedish aviator era in 1917. The task to build the monument was given to the famous sculptor Carl Milles. The Aviator Monument was finished in 1931.
Millesgården is an art museum and sculpture garden, located on the island of Lidingö in Stockholm, Sweden. It is located in the grounds of the former home of sculptor Carl Milles (1875–1955) and his wife, the artist Olga Milles (1874–1967). Millesgården consists of three main parts: the artists' former home, an art gallery, and a sculpture park.
Philip A. Hart Plaza, in downtown Detroit, is a city plaza along the Detroit River. It is located more or less on the site at which Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac landed in 1701 when he founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, the settlement that became Detroit. In 2011, the Detroit-Wayne County Port Authority opened its new cruise ship passenger terminal and dock at Hart Plaza, adjacent to the Renaissance Center, which receives major cruise ships such as the MS Hamburg and the Yorktown.
The year 2011 in art involved some significant events and new works.
George Washington is a statue by the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon from the late 18th century. Based on a life mask and other measurements of George Washington taken by Houdon, it is considered one of the most accurate depictions of the subject. The original sculpture is located in the rotunda of the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, and it has been copied extensively, with one copy standing in the United States Capitol Rotunda.
The Puritan is a bronze statue by sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens in Springfield, Massachusetts, which became so popular it was reproduced for over 20 other cities, museums, universities, and private collectors around the world, and later became an official symbol of the city, emblazoned on its municipal flag. Originally designed to be part of Stearns Square, since 1899 the statue has stood at the corner of Chestnut and State Street next to The Quadrangle.
Ruth Milles was a Swedish sculptor and writer. She is mainly known for her figurines and reliefs.
An outdoor granite sculpture of Alexander Hamilton by Carl Conrads is installed in Central Park, Manhattan, New York. Hamilton's son, John C. Hamilton, commissioned Conrads to sculpt this statue, which was dedicated on November 22, 1880, and donated to the city. Conrads used the bust of Hamilton created by the sculptor Giuseppe Ceracchi as a model for Hamilton's head.
Playing Angels is a sculpture series along the Schuylkill River and Kelly Drive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It consists of three boy-shaped angels standing about six feet tall with wings and musical instruments. The bronze pieces are balanced on separate concrete pedestals overlooking the river bank and are about a mile away from Boathouse Row.
59°22′23″N16°31′05″E / 59.37298°N 16.51792°E