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[ Home > Page 3: The Bartholdi Fountain, Part 1 ]
Page 3: The Bartholdi Fountain, Part 1![Page 3: The Bartholdi Fountain, Part 1]()
Bartholdi Park, The Bartholdi Fountain, designed by the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, graces the flower-filled Bartholdi Park near the U.S. Botanic Garden and provides a welcome oasis for visitors. The fountain is based on Classical and Renaissance forms and is an elegant expression of the Gilded Age in which it was created. The fountain was designed symmetrically in three identical sections. The triangular base with turtles and large shells rises to the pedestal, from which three identical nereids (sea nymphs) rise on thirds. Between their feet are fish and scattered sea shells and coral. The nymphs, with arched backs, are caryatids, following a tradition of sculpture founded in classical Greece. They seem to hold up the large basin, which is actually supported by the central column. The nymphs wear headdresses of leaves. Their clinging drapery, clasped by shells at the waist, reveals their supple figures. Despite its monumental size (it weighs approximately 40 tons and is 30 feet high, and the sculptured female figures are 11 feet tall), each element of the fountain is beautifully detailed.
The curved arms of the nereids lead the viewer's eye to the large basin above, which supports twelve lights. The fountain continues with three youthful tritons playfully holding out seaweed and is topped by a mural crown resembling a crenelated city wall. Water spills from the crown over the tritons and splashes into the upper basin, while jets shoot from the mouths of the fish and the turtles.
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904) created the fountain for the 1876 International Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. The design was based on a model he had created in 1867. Bartholdi was also working on his design for the Statue of Liberty at the same time. The fountain, cast in Paris by A. Durenne, was painted to look like bronze and placed at a focal point near the main entrance of the Exhibition grounds in Fairmount Park.
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