In 1906, Carl Milles was appointed a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Following a long and persistent campaign of persuasion, he was also designated a professor of modelling in 1920. The Academy thus gained a future internationally acclaimed artist among its teaching staff.



In the beginning, classes were taught at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts on Fredsgatan. Milles inspected his students’ work once a week. He emphasised the ancient Greek theory of ratio and proportion and encouraged students to devote themselves to reading books alongside their artistic pursuits. In 1925, the sculpture department was moved to the historic Sergelhuset near Hötorget, where sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel once had a studio.



Milles’s students included sculptors Eric Grate, Astri Bergman-Taube, Ellen von Hallwyll and Bror Marklund. In the picture, the studio from Sergelhuset, Axel Wallenberg, the first superintendent of Millesgården after Milles’s death, is seen in the foreground. The female sculptor behind the nude model has been identified as Dagmar Lodén-Hennig and in the background Milles himself can be seen dressed in a suit.



After long periods of leave, Carl Milles resigned as professor in 1931. Many students found him to be a difficult and inaccessible teacher. For example, it is said that he did not allow students into his own studio for fear that they would steal his ideas. Initially, Milles was interested in having the Royal Academy of Fine Arts become the owner and manager of Millesgården, but this proposal was turned down.



In 1937, Milles resigned his membership, an action in opposition to some of his academy colleagues, with whom he had a tense relationship. By that time, he had already moved to the United States, where his career regained momentum. 



Photo; Konstakademien