The Hand of God

The Hand of God is a bronze sculpture by the Swedish sculptor Carl Milles. Created between 1949 and 1953, it stands outside the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit, Michigan. This piece is a tribute to the Swedish entrepreneur C. E. Johansson, who revolutionized precision measuring of industrial parts. The original casting stands in Johansson's hometown of Eskilstuna, Sweden.

The sculpture features a small naked man - looking upwards with a tensed body - standing on the index and thumb of a large hand. The sculptor said the idea for the statue came to him in a dream. During his time in Paris, Milles was influenced by the work of Auguste Renoir, who was also fascinated by hands. The sketch of the hand was modeled after the artist's left hand.

The statue was recast and donated by the UAW to the city of Detroit. In 1957, the Swedish government gave a reproduction of The Hand of God to the royal family of Indonesia, which is exhibited in the gardens of the Bogor Palace. In June 2004, the city of Beijing bought a reproduction and placed it in the city's International Sculpture Park. A reproduction is also given as part of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, and another reproduction stands in the Hakone Open-Air Museum in Japan.

Authentic reproductions are marked with a "Millesgården" tag. The artist provided many different interpretations for this work, which remains one of the last works of the Swedish sculptor.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons