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God, our Father, on the Rainbow (1949 - 1995)

Carl Milles (1875 – 1955) was a renowned Swedish sculptor best known for his fountain sculptures, and who, for many years, resided in the US.

A tribute to the UN In 1946, when the United Nations was newly founded and its headquarters was planned for Manhattan, New York, Milles conceived the idea for a large scale sculpture for the new building. Four years later, a 10 ft. high model was presented to Tryggve Lie, the Secretary General, who was in favor of the project, under the condition that financing could be arranged. It was intended as a sculpture in the garden outside the headquarters, with the water from the sculpture cascading into the East River. The sculpture was conceived as a symbol of piece and a salute to the creation of the UN.

After several years of fruitless discussions and efforts to finance the project, and objections from NYC officials regarding the outlet of water into the East River, the project was finally cancelled in 1954 by Dag Hammarskjöld, the new Secretary General and a fellow Swede. It was a tremendous disappointment for Milles, who passed away a year later and was thus denied to see his project realized.

Its current location Almost 40 years later, an American sculptor and pupil of Milles, Marshall Fredericks, received the commission to build the sculpture in a newly created office park in Nacka Stand, a suburb of Stockholm, on the waterway into central Stockholm. Finished in 1995, this monumental sculpture stands 18 meters (60 ft.) high. It shows a naked God balancing at the end of an arch, hanging stars in the sky, tossed his way by an angel at the base of the sculpture. Milles' design was to have water cascading from the tip of the arch into the water/river, thus completing a semicircle. A silhouette effect, much used by Milles as a design feature, is achieved by placing God on a high arch against the sky. In addition, the cascading water is given a symbolic meaning for life and the Holy Spirit, a connection to Milles’ belief in the eternal life of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, like water, descends to the Earth and then ascends to the sky again in an eternal cycle.

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