The Artist´s Home around 1910 and today
This is Carl and Olga Milles' home. The building was designed by architect Karl Bengtsson. Construction begun in 1908 and was completed in 1909. Originally, it had a more rustic character in a national romantic style with materials such as granite, rough cast and unpainted wood. From the middle of the 1910s, Carl Milles? half-brother, Evert Milles, became Millesgården?s architect. Large-scale renovations and extensions, primarily in the 1920s, gave the Artists' Home its present style.
The tower, decorated with Carl Milles' carved wooden poles between the windows, was part of the original building. The tower room housed Carl Milles? observatory, equipped with a telescope.
The house was ready for occupation in 1909 and comprised a living room, kitchen, bedroom and two studios. Both the exterior and the interior were characterised by the then modern national romantic rustic style. Rebuilding, primarily in the 1920s but also in the 1940s, gave the house its present classicist character. The later conversions were intended to transform the private dwelling into a museum for art. Not all the conversion plans were implemented which is why parts of the previous interior decoration remain.
| The oblong-shaped gallery is on the left in the building. The gallery was originally an open terrace with a roof supported by sturdy granite pillars. A major conversion in the 1920s transformed the terrace into a gallery and a dining room. On a trip to Italy in 1921, Carl and Olga Milles and Carl?s brother Evert Milles visited, among other places, Pompeii and were inspired by the classical decorations they saw. From then on the reshaping of Millesgården continued in neoclassical style. The room has French windows along one wall and grey faux marbled walls, divided into sections by pink, gilded pilasters. The alabaster lamps and the mosaic floor were designed by Carl Milles. He laid the mosaic floor with his wife and the Italian stucco artisan Augosto Conte. The room was used as a dining room as well as a gallery where Carl Milles? smaller sculptures were displayed. |
|
 |
Both of these rooms are decorated in pale, painted wood. The breakfast room?s walls are tiled with blue Dutch titles. Olga Milles made the blue decorative paintings on the cupboards, where the couple?s collections of glass and porcelain are displayed.
|
|
 |
 |
  |
The dimensions of Carl Milles' studio were defined by a commission Carl Milles received in 1902 for a monument of Sten Sture in Uppsala. Originally, the room had open roof trusses and was lit from above. The steep staircase led to a gallery from which one could view the sculptures from above. In 1919 the studio was rebuilt with a ceiling and a row of wooden pillars that divided the room. The conversion was executed in order to provide the room with a more classic style and make it easier to heat. Carl Milles worked in the studio with major commissions in the 1910s and 1920s. Plaster models of Carl Milles' sculptures are displayed in the studio. The plaster models were used to make moulds in which bronzes were cast. In addition to the plaster models displayed in the studio, Millesgården owns practically all existing plaster models for Milles? sculptures. They are stored in a special plaster warehouse.
|
This was originally the living room with a large fireplace where the organ stands today. The dark stained wooden wall, with carvings by Carl Milles, is part of the original interior décor. Today the fireplace is gone and the room receives its name from the two musical instruments, the Steinway grand piano and the 16th century Salzburg organ. The Music Room houses parts of the art collections, including the medieval wooden sculptures and paintings by masters of the 16th century and onwards. One wall is covered by a tapestry from Beauvais in Northern France, displaying a classical theme: the myth of Niobe who was forced to watch her children being killed by Apollo and Artemis.
The Red Room
The Red Room was built as an exhibition space on the site of the old kitchen and was completed at the end of the 1920s. The walls are painted in the stucco lustra technique. The red colour provokes associations to classical antiquity, as well as enhances the sculptures on display. Carl Milles designed the mosaic floor that relates to Millesgården. In the circle one finds naiads, tritons and fountains as well as flowers, just as one does outside the window.
The Monk CellThis room was built in 1911 and was used as a studio by Olga Milles.
The Small Studio 
The Antiquity Collection
Sculptures on The Upper Terrace
