Fontaine de l'Observatoire
The Fontaine de l'Observatoire is a monumental fountain located in the Jardin Marco Polo, south of the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, with sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. It was dedicated in 1874. It is also known as the Fontaine des Quatre-Parties-du-Monde, for the four parts of the world embodied by its female figures, or simply the Fontaine Carpeaux.
History
The fountain was first proposed in 1866 as part of the creation of the new grand avenue du Luxembourg, one of the major projects of the plan of
The avenue du Luxembourg project called for the creation of two new squares, with ornamental lamps and columns, statues, and a fountain. The fountain was located on the tree-lined axis between the
The sculptor chosen, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827–1875), had been a pupil of François Rude, the sculptor who had made the most famous group of sculptures on the Arc de Triomphe. Carpeaux won the Prix de Rome in 1854. In 1869 he made the sculptures of La Danse on the facade of the Paris Opera which had caused a scandal because of the free expression of the sculpture and the unrestrained emotions on the faces of the statues, much different from the calm expressions of neo-classical statues. The first critical reaction to the sculpture, based on the plaster models presented in the Salon, was hostile. The critic Jules Clarétie wrote: "These thin, unhealthy women, with their wasted flanks, their elongated, furrowed thighs, are twisting around in a bizarre circle without any grace.... One has to ask by what aberration of spirit, eye and hand one could compose such a group of wild, vulgar and wrinkled dancers."[3]
The first studies Carpeaux made were of four standing female figures representing the four points of the compass holding a celestial sphere over their heads, but Carpeaux was dissatisfied with the immobility of the figures. In his next models he transformed the women into representatives of the
The work on the project was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and the uprising of the Paris Commune. It was resumed in 1872, when plaster models were shown at the
See also
- World peace, a sculpture in Helsinki, Finland by the Soviet sculptor Oleg Kiryuhin, said to have drawn inspiration from Carpeaux's sculpture Quatre-Parties-du-Monde
Sources and citations
- ^ Béatrice Lamoitier, "Le règne de Davioud", in Paris et ses fontaines (pg. 180).
- ^ Béatrice Lamoitier, "Entre Innovation et Tradition", in Paris et ses fontaines, pg. 186.
- ^ Jules Clarétie, Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains, 1874. Pg. 192-196 contain a discussion of the work of Carpeaux written in 1872. Cited by Beatrice LaMoitier. Excerpt translated by D.R. Siefkin.
- ^ Catalogue des peintures et sculptures de Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux à Valenciennes, Valenciennes, 1978 (pg. 80-82.). Cited by Beatrice LaMoitier, this book illustrates two of the studies Carpeaux he did for the fountain.
- ^ LaMoitier, pg. 186.
- ^ Jane Turner, The Grove dictionary of art: From Monet to Cézanne : late 19th-century p 62f.
- ^ Jules Clarétie, Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains, 1re série, Aristes decedes de 1870 a 1880. Paris, Bibliotheque des Bibliophiles, 1882, pg. 183-185. Cited by LaMoitier.
Bibliography
- Paris et ses fontaines - de la Renaissance a nos jours, a collection of articles edited by Beatrice de Andia, Collection Paris et son patrimoine, Paris, 1995.