Fountain of the Great Lakes, 1913
Lorado Taft
South Garden of the Art
Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
For this first work of
public sculpture funded by the B. F. Ferguson Monument Fund, sculptor LoradoTaft (1860-1936) designed a towering bronze fountain featuring five female
figures, “of no time nor race,” pouring water from shells as a symbol of the
continuous flow of water from the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence seaway into
the Atlantic Ocean. In part, the concept was based upon his own memory of the
myth of the Danaïdes, in which all but one of the 50 daughters of Danaus are
convinced by their father to kill their husbands on their wedding night and
are, subsequently, punished in Hades by being compelled to pour water endlessly
into a vessel full of holes. Taft reduces the number of women to five,
corresponding to the number of Great Lakes, and positions them in a
relationship that mirrors the flow of water, from Superior at the top with
Michigan on the side pouring into the basin held by Huron, who sends it to
Erie. Ontario receives the water at the bottom and looks to the right
(originally eastward) as it heads toward the Atlantic.
After producing two sculptural groups for the
Horticultural Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Taft was
sensitive to Chicago planner Daniel Burnham’s lament that no sculptors at the
Exposition had made anything related to the natural resources of the Chicago
region, including the nearby lake. The Illinois-born Taft was educated at the
École des Beaux Arts in Paris during the 1880s, the school directly associated
with the Greek- and Roman-inspired architecture adopted by Burnham and others
for the “White City” buildings. In addition to answering to Burnham’s comment
with this fountain, Taft believed it offered the kind of “enduring statuary”
demanded by the Ferguson Monument Fund.
Established in 1905 following the death of wealthy lumber
merchant Benjamin Franklin Ferguson, the one million dollar bequest stipulated
that monies be used for the erection and maintenance of stone, granite or
bronze statuary “commemorating worthy men or women of America or important
events in American history.” Rather than
create a work that “represented” Ferguson in a literal sense, Taft intended the
fountain to “commemorate” the donor and honor his hope that Chicago would join
the ranks of major cities of Europe that featured impressive statues and
fountains.
Although the Ferguson Fund was intended to be used only
for public sculpture, the Board of Trustees of the Art Institute, who were
charged with managing the trust, filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Cook
County and, eventually, were allowed to use the fund to erect and maintain an
administrative building, resulting in a scandal amongst sculptors and other
civic-minded individuals. When the Fountain
of the Great Lakes was moved in 1963 from its original location on the
south wall of the main building to the west façade of the new Morton wing,
critics pointed out that the fountain’s new position would hide the bronze
portrait of Ferguson on the back side of the work, as well as the engraved
request from his will stating that the funds be used for enduring statuary and
monuments.
Other works:
- George Washington—Robert Morris—Haym Salomon Monument
- The Crusader: Victor Lawson Monument
- Eternal Silence: Dexter Graves Monument
- Fountain of Time
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