Around Swedish America in 548 Days - Day 350

Day 350 - Monticello

In Allerton Park and Conference Center (217-762-2721; www.allerton.uiuc.edu), between Champaign and Decatur just off Interstate 72, is Carl Milles’s impressive sculpture The Sun Singer, a bronze male nude with uplifted arms mounted on a granite column. It sits on the former estate of Robert Henry Allerton (1873-1964), art collector, one-time painter, and heir to a large fortune. His estate, The Farms, was a gift to the University of Illinois in 1946. The sculpture is reached by driving one and one-half miles past the main conference center through a wooded area to a large clearing at the end of the road. Castings made from the same mold may also be found at the National Memorial Park, a private cemetery in Falls Church, Virginia, and on the waterfront near the Royal Palace in Stockholm.