Fontaine de l'Observatoire
Encyclopedia
Jardin du Luxembourg
The Jardin du Luxembourg, or the Luxembourg Gardens, is the second largest public park in Paris The Jardin du Luxembourg, or the Luxembourg Gardens, is the second largest public park in Paris The Jardin du Luxembourg, or the Luxembourg Gardens, is the second largest public park in Paris (224,500 m²...
in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, with sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was a French sculptor and painter.Born in Valenciennes, Nord, son of a mason, his early studies were under François Rude. Carpeaux entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1844 and won the Prix de Rome in 1854, and moving to Rome to find inspiration, he there studied the works of...
. It was dedicated in 1874. It is also known as the Fontaine des Quatre-Parties-du-Monde, for the four parts of the world
Four continents
Europeans in the 16th century divided the world into four continents: Africa, America, Asia and Europe. Each of the four continents was seen to represent its quadrant of the world—Europe in the north, Asia in the east, Africa in the south, and America in the west...
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 Baron HaussmannBaron Haussmann
Georges-Eugène Haussmann, commonly known as Baron Haussmann , was a French civic planner whose name is associated with the rebuilding of Paris...
for the reconstruction of Paris. The project was under the direction of Gabriel Davioud
Gabriel Davioud
Jean-Antoine-Gabriel Davioud was a French architect.Davioud was born in Paris and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Léon Vaudoyer...
, the director of the Service of Parks and Plantations of the Prefecture of Paris. Davioud was a trained classical sculptor, and he was responsible for the design of the Paris fountains, squares, gates, lamp-posts, benches, pavilions and other architectural details during the Second French Empire
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...
.
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 Observatoire de Paris and the Palais du Luxembourg. The sculpture of the fountain was supposed to be related to the observatory, and instructions of Davioud to the sculptor were simply not to block the view of the domed observatory or the palace.
The sculptor chosen, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was a French sculptor and painter.Born in Valenciennes, Nord, son of a mason, his early studies were under François Rude. Carpeaux entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1844 and won the Prix de Rome in 1854, and moving to Rome to find inspiration, he there studied the works of...
(1827–1875), had been a pupil of François Rude
François Rude
François Rude was a French sculptor. He was the stepfather of Paul Cabet, a sculptor.Born in Dijon, he worked at his father's trade as a stovemaker till the age of sixteen, but received training in drawing from François Devosges, where he learned that a strong, simple contour was an invaluable...
, the sculptor who had made the most famous group of sculptures on the Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe
-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...
. Carpeaux won the Prix de Rome
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
in 1854. In 1869 he made the sculptures of La Danse on the facade of the Paris Opera
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
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 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 four parts of the world
Four continents
Europeans in the 16th century divided the world into four continents: Africa, America, Asia and Europe. Each of the four continents was seen to represent its quadrant of the world—Europe in the north, Asia in the east, Africa in the south, and America in the west...
, Europe, Asia, Africa and America, twisting their bodies to turn the sphere, giving the sculpture motion.
The sculptor Eugène Legrain (1837–1915), a student of Carpeaux, was commissioned to make the sphere, and the sculptor Emmanuel Frémiet
Emmanuel Frémiet
Emmanuel Frémiet was a French sculptor. He is famous for his sculpture of Joan of Arc in Paris and the monument to Ferdinand de Lesseps in Suez....
, the nephew and pupil of the sculptor François Rude
François Rude
François Rude was a French sculptor. He was the stepfather of Paul Cabet, a sculptor.Born in Dijon, he worked at his father's trade as a stovemaker till the age of sixteen, but received training in drawing from François Devosges, where he learned that a strong, simple contour was an invaluable...
, made the horses in the basin around the statue. Louis Villeminot created the garlands of seashells and aquatic plants which decorated the basin, and Legrain designed the zodiac band around the sphere. The project received one correction from the Director of the Observatory, who noted in 1872 that the signs of the zodiac on the band around the equator of the sphere should actually be on an ecliptic
Ecliptic
The ecliptic is the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun. In more accurate terms, it is the intersection of the celestial sphere with the ecliptic plane, which is the geometric plane containing the mean orbit of the Earth around the Sun...
circle.
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 Paris Salon
Paris Salon
The Salon , or rarely Paris Salon , beginning in 1725 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Between 1748–1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the Western world...
, the first since the fall of the Commune, and finished in 1874. Casting was by Matifat. Carpeaux was in poor health, and watched from a distance as the statues were installed in the fountain. He died the following year.
Critical Reaction
The first critical reaction to the sculpture, based on the plaster models presented in the Salon, was hostile. The critic Jules Clarétie wrote: "This 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."Ten years later, however, after Carpeaux was dead. Clarétie reversed his judgement and praised the fountain as one of the masterpieces of Carpeaux.