Vintage Press Photo CARL MILLES Artist Nude Bronze Statues LOUIS ALOES FOUNTAIN

Vintage 1939

Original Press Photo

CARL MILLES

Artist w/ His Nude Bronze Statues For The LOUIS ALOES FOUNTAIN

St. Louis, Missouri

This is a vintage press photo from International News Photos of Carl Milles with his large bronze sculptures in his Cranbrook Studio in Michigan before they were installed in St. Louis. The attached caption is titled “Sculptor Attempts To Clothe Nude Statues”, and talks about the uproar over the nude figures and his defense.

Photo measures 8 3/4” x 6 3/4”.

Typewritten original caption is attached at back and folded over to front. Stamped on reverse.

Some history:

Located in St. Louis in Aloe Plaza, the “Meeting of the Waters” fountain was designed by swedish-born sculptor Carl Milles.

The fountain consists of fourteen bronze statues. The fountain’s figures are meant as an allegory: The figures are celebrating the meeting of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Meeting of the Waters was controversial when it was first installed because the figures were nude.

Lighting and landscaping was added to the fountain in 1954, and it became a City Landmark in 1971.

‘“Aloe Plaza was named in honor of Louis P. Aloe, who died in 1929. He served as President of the Board of Alderman from 1916 to 1923 and led the movement for passage of the [1923] bond issue” that funded many St. Louis projects. But Aloe never met Milles.

Edith Aloe, Louis P. Aloe’s widow, became acquainted with the work of the Swedish sculptor, Carl Milles, at an exhibition of modern art held by the St. Louis League of Women Voters in 1930. The idea of commissioning Milles to build a fountain in Aloe Plaza grew out of her enthusiasm for his work.

But the country was in the middle of the Depression so her idea was put on hold until January 1936 when Mrs. Aloe gave a dinner in her home for the sculptor,Carl Milles, and members of the St. Louis Art Commission. She officially presented her check for $12,500.

The City signed a contract with Milles in 1936. Milles designed and cast the bronze statues for the fountain in his studio at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Cranbrook, Michigan. The fountain was completed in November 1939, but remained veiled until its dedication on May 11, 1940 before a crowd of 3,000 persons.

The fountain, originally named “The Wedding of the Rivers,” depicts the union of the Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers, represented by the two central figures. Accompanying the two main figures and forming a wedding procession are 17 water spirits, symbolic of the smaller streams that empty into the two major rivers.

An uproar arose over the nudity of the male figure, reprenting the Mississippi River and the female figure, the Missouri River. In deference to the criticism, the name of the fountain was changed to ,”The Meeting of the Waters.”’

CONDITION:

Excellent, vintage pre-owned condition. Some creasing to photo and some tears to caption. See photos for details.

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