Fountain of the Great Lakes ..
Sculptor: Lorado Taft ..
Bronze work created between 1907-1913.
Location: South Garden of the Art Institute of Chicago ...
As the name "Fountain of Great Lakes" suggests, this fountain represents the five great lakes .. The five women are so arranged that the water flows through them in the same way water passes through the Great Lakes. 'Superior' is on the top and 'Michigan' on the side both empty into the basin of 'Huron' who sends the stream to 'Erie' whereas 'Ontario' receives the water and gazes off as it flows into the ocean ..
The fountain is Taft's response to Daniel Burnham's complaint at the Columbian Exposition in 1893 that the sculptors charged with ornamenting the fairgrounds failed to produce anything that represented the great natural resources of the west, especially the Great Lakes. The fountain depicts five women that represent the five Great Lakes ... and the water flows through them in the same way water passes through the Great Lakes.
The sculptor Lorado Taft was an instructor at the School of the Art Institute for several years.
The garden surrounding the fountain was designed by the Office of Dan Kiley, who was a renowned late 20th Century landscape artist.
1 comments:
Correction: Dan Kiley was not a "landscape artist" as you have described him- he was a landscape architect.
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