International studio (57.1915/1916)

Some Noteworthy American Fountains

upon a tall hexagonal pedestal, stand three
beautifully draped female figures, upon whose
upward extended hands rests a broad shallow
bowl. In the centre of the latter, are three
kneeling figures, above which, from an umbrella-
like structure, the water falls. The exquisite grace
of the figures and the beauty of the draperies make
a strong appeal to the genuine lover of statuary.
In the adornment of the great Library of Con-
gress many American artists have been honoured,
but to have been selected to design the fountain,
which is one of the most distinguishing features
of the fagade of that magnificent building, was
indeed a triumph. R. Hinton Perry’s wonderful
fountain, The Court of Neptune (see page lxxvi),
will always delight the eye of the visitor to the
city of Washington.
In front of the grand stairway which leads to
the terrace before the building, arranged in three
niches, above a great pool, the Sea God is en-
throned upon a rock. His immediate attendants
are two tritons, who hold their traditional conch-
shells to the mouths. The splendid muscular
figure of Neptune is admirably wrought. To
right and left, in niches, nude female figures,
mounted on aquatic horses, are seen springing
forth in a very abandon of motion. The bronze
has acquired a rich patina of green, which gives
to the work a tone of indescribable loveliness.
Perry has done many fine things, but in vigour
and motion and beauty of modelling, this charm-
ing fountain has not been surpassed.
In his remarkable fountain in Hartford, J. M.
Rhind has accomplished the feat of adapting an
actual native subject to established principles of
art. He has also departed from all such con-
ventionalities as the use of tritons, dolphins, sea-
serpents, and all that strange brood of am-
phibious creatures, so common in the fountains
of the Old World. The “American Fountain,” as
many prefer to call it, is located on an admirable
site in Bushnell Park. Its design typifies the city of
Hartford in its relation to early American history.
Surmounting a rock, from which the water comes
tumbling down, is a hart, with legs in position
for a leap; thus the hart fording the river has
furnished the name for Connecticut’s capital.
Below the hart is a shallow bowl, whose pedes-
tal is surrounded by a group of Indian maidens;
behind them is a growth of standing maize.
The lower basin rests upon a broad, flaring sup-
port, which is ornamented with the heads of

native animals of the Connecticut valley. Out
of the mouths of these creatures issue the streams
of water which fall into the lower basin.
But the crowning glory of this masterpiece are
the four bronze figures of American Indians;
splendid warriors representing the civilizing of
the Indian. The first, a nude savage in the act
of spearing a fish, typifies the primitive aboriginal
state. Defiance is shown in the figure with up-
raised tomahawk. Vigilance appears in the
kneeling Indian, who watches with shaded eye,
the approach of the “pale-face.” Civilization is
indicated by the calm-faced chief, who offers the
calumet of peace. ■
When we realize that the sculptor had as
models genuine Indians, we can understand why
this work is so realistic as well as artistic. It is,
indeed, a faithful record of Indian life and
appearance that will endure when that phy-
sically noble race shall have vanished from the
earth.
J^RENCH ART AT PITTSBURGH
The Carnegie Institute, through its
director of fine arts, who is at present
in San Francisco, has concluded an arrange-
ment with Monsieur Jean Guiffrey, Commis-
sioner for Fine Arts for France, providing for
the exhibition of the entire collection of paintings
in the French Section, numbering about two
hundred and fifty works, at Pittsburgh, during
the months of May and June next; the exhibition
to be an important feature of the Founder’s Day
celebration on April 27.
The Carnegie Institute, in co-operation with
the American Federation of Arts, planned, early
in the summer, a more general exhibition, which
should represent the art of the various nations,
in a comprehensive but small collection, which
collection, it was anticipated, would go to several
important cities. It was discovered, however,
that to withdraw from the French Section
thirty-two important paintings for which orders
had been received, would materially interfere with
a plan providing for the exhibition of the entire
French Section in Chicago, St. Louis, Buffalo
and other cities, under the management of the
Albright Art Gallery and, therefore, the original
plan was abandoned, and the agreement providing
for the exhibition of the collection at Pittsburgh
substituted.

LXXVIII