Olga Milles

Olga Louise Milles was an Austrian-born portrait painter who spent many years at Millesgården in Sweden after marrying the sculptor Carl Milles. Although while young she was very productive, she painted less when married. After her husband was appointed professor at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in suburban Detroit, the couple spent 20 years in the United States. There she painted a number of portraits while looking after the home. Olga Milles and her husband avoided the war years in Europe, but both sympathized with Hitler and Mussolini. Two years after her husband died in 1955, she returned to Austria where she spent the rest of her life in her hometown Graz.