Fountain of Time

Fountain of Time, 1922

Lorado Taft

Washington Park, west end of Midway Plaisance

5900 South Cottage Grove Avenue

Located in Washington Park, a 367-acre expanse designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Lorado Taft’s Fountain of Time is the only realized portion of his grand beautification scheme for the Midway Plaisance, a mile-long and 220 yard-wide area linking Washington and Jackson Parks on Chicago’s south side. Originally, he envisioned an equally monumental “Fountain of Creation” to be erected on the east end of the Midway, consisting of figures emerging from the earth, acting out the Greek legend of Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, who repopulated the earth following the Deluge by throwing stones over their shoulders. Visitors to the east end of the Midway will find, instead, the Thomas G. Masaryk Memorial, installed in 1955.

            The work is not a fountain at all but, rather, a massive 110-foot long sculptural relief of 100 figures behind a pool of water, traveling from birth to death before a 16-foot tall mantled figure representing “Time.” Taft stated that the lone figure standing across the water was  “watching with cynical, inscrutable gaze the endless march of humanity.” Taft found inspiration for the work in a passage from a poem by Austin Dobson:

            Time goes, you say? Ah, no.

            Alas, Time stays; we go.

The figures include dancing children, a priest, a poet, a conquering hero on horseback, soldiers, lovers, an old man reaching for death as well as a self-portrait of Taft on the back, striding with hands behind his back in a meditative pose. Viewers may find it hard to imagine that the work, commissioned in 1913 by the B. F. Ferguson Monument Fund, was intended to commemorate 100 years of peace between the Britain and America following the Treaty of Ghent, thus fulfilling the requirement that sculptures funded by the trust related to “important events in American history.”

            In addition to being a haunting and visually stunning work, the Fountain of Time was an incredible technical achievement for the time. As stone carving and bronze casting were ruled out due to expense and time considerations, Taft appealed to John Joseph Earley, a sculptor who had developed a pebble-finish architectural concrete to complete the casting. Over 4500 pieces comprised the finished mold but Earley was able to complete the casting in less than a year and the work was unveiled in 1922. Since that time, due to vandalism and the effects of harsh weather and pollution, the sculpture has undergone a number of renovations and repairs.

Other works: 

• George Washington—Robert Morris—Haym Salomon Monument
• The Crusader: Victor Lawson Monument
• Eternal Silence: Dexter Graves Monument
• Fountain of the Great Lakes

Eternal Silence: Dexter Graves Monument

Eternal Silence: Dexter Graves Monument, 1909

Lorado Taft

Southeastern section
Graceland Cemetery

4001 North Clark Street

            Dexter Graves (1789-1844) was a hotel owner and one of first settlers in the area, bringing a colony of 13 families to Chicago from Ohio in 1831. This bronze figure, 8 feet high and standing against a polished black granite backdrop, was commissioned by Graves’ son, Henry, to mark the site of his father’s burial. Taft’s approach to the work signals his awareness of innovative funerary art, such as the Adams Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, installed at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C. in 1891. Saint-Gaudens’ piece featured a shrouded figure of ambiguous gender that reflected Henry Adams’ interest in Buddhism and his desire to honor his wife’s memory with a serene figure who has accepted the inevitable. Similarly, Taft’s shrouded figure does not reflect a traditional or Christian approach to a mortuary monument, and the eerie quality of the work may have been enhanced by the fact that the exposed areas have developed a green patina while the face has remained dark. 

Other works: 

• George Washington—Robert Morris—Haym Salomon Monument
• The Crusader: Victor Lawson Monument
• Fountain of the Great Lakes
• Fountain of Time

George Washington—Robert Morris—Haym Salomon Monument

George Washington—Robert Morris—Haym Salomon Monument, 1941

Lorado Taft and Leonard Crunelle

North Wabash Avenue and East Upper Wacker Drive

The first statue ever to depict George Washington with other individuals, the concept for this bronze monument originated with Barnet Hodes, a lawyer of Polish-Jewish heritage and member of the Patriotic Foundation of Chicago, the not-for-profit organization that commissioned the work. Hodes became interested in the career of Haym Salomon, a broker working with foreign currencies during the 18^th century and active supporter of the Revolutionary effort, sometimes underwriting some of the costs himself.  Also of Polish-Jewish heritage, Salomon and his contributions to the development of the United States were often overlooked in history books and Hodes wanted to create a monument that commemorated the spirit of cooperation between civilians and soldiers during the Revolutionary War as well as the cultural pluralism of the country.

            The Patriotic Foundation approached Lorado Taft about creating a model for visual presentations, which would help with fundraising efforts as they intended to pay the $50,000 cost through donations from citizens of Chicago. Taft suffered a stroke in his Midway Studios (on the University of Chicago campus) while finishing the model and he died on October 30, 1936. During his many years as a teacher and lecturer, Taft had worked with a number of students and associates in the Midway Studios and one of them, Leonard Crunelle, was called upon to complete the monument after Taft’s death.

            Standing more than 11 feet tall, Washington is shown wearing his Commander-in-Chief campaign clothes with the Continental three-cornered hat. To his right is Robert Morris, businessman and eventual Superintendent of Finance for the Continental government (1781-84), making him, essentially, the country’s first Secretary of the Treasury. Together with Salomon, both of whom were residents of Philadelphia, Morris helped bring about the creation of the Bank of North America in that city. The three figures exude determination and a sense of cooperation, standing together with clasped hands.

            In addition to acknowledging the contributions of businessmen and individuals with different backgrounds to the Revolutionary effort, the monument stood as a refutation of Nazi ideology. Dedicated on December 15, 1941 (Bill of Rights Day), the work was described as a “great triumvirate of patriots” by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt stated that it symbolized “a fundamental fact of American tolerance.” The massive base features a bronze, bas-relief plaque that depicts an assemblage of people of various professions, ethnicities and backgrounds, gathered beneath a seated Goddess of Liberty with outstretched arms.  The work is sometimes called the “Heald Monument,” due to its former location in Heald Square, a spot named in honor of the Commander of Old Fort Dearborn, Nathan Heald.

Other works:

• The Crusader: Victor Lawson Monument
• Eternal Silence: Dexter Graves Monument
• Fountain of the Great Lakes
• Fountain of Time
• Victory Monument, World War I Black Soldiers’ Memorial
• Richard Oglesby Monument
• Fountain Figures (Crane Girl, Fisher Boy, Turtle Boy, Dove Girl)

The Crusader: Victor Lawson Monument

The Crusader: Victor Lawson Monument, 1931

Lorado Taft

East central section

Graceland Cemetery

4001 North Clark Street

            Although Lorado Taft was educated in the Beaux Arts style and remained conservative in his approach through most of his career, this monument signals a slight shift in that he moves away from classicizing tendencies and complex compositions to a simpler approach to the human form, emphasizing its sheer bulk and smooth surfaces. A 10-foot high medieval knight wearing cloak and mail, featuring the cross of a crusader on his shield, the figure commemorates the “crusading” career of Victor Fremont Lawson, publisher of the politically independent Chicago Daily News from 1876 until his death in 1925. Lawson was a pioneer in the practice of sending reporters to distant locations to find news and he established a chain of correspondents that became the Daily News Foreign Service.

            Visitors to the site will notice that the grave and monument are unmarked, reflecting Lawson’s tendency to make anonymous donations to a variety of charitable causes. The impact of the work is accentuated by the surrounding landscape, replanted during the 1990s as part of the cemetery’s ongoing effort to recapture the design of earlier years, particularly the style of O. C. Simonds. He served as cemetery superintendent during the 1880s and 1890s and continued on as landscape consultant for many years.

Other works: 

• George Washington—Robert Morris—Haym Salomon Monument
• Eternal Silence: Dexter Graves Monument
• Fountain of the Great Lakes
• Fountain of Time

Fountain of the Great Lakes

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