HD photographs of the female allegorical statues on Fontaine de l'Observatoire - Page 487
We were within Jardin Marco Polo that is an extension of the Luxembourg Gardens and part of the Jardin des Grands Explorateurs, when we took these high definition photos showing the figures on the monumental fountain called Fontaine des Quatre Parties du Monde, which were sculpted by Jean Baptiste Carpeaux.
Paris Statues
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This first photo shows the centre piece of the monumental fountain, which although has an official name of Fontaine des Quatre Parties du Monde, is also known as the Fontaine de l’Observatoire due to its location close to the Paris Observatory, yet is also known as the Carpeaux Fountain after the main sculptor and artist that worked on this.
So this next close up photo shows two of the four allegorical figures that are holding up the celestial globe, which were designed by Jean Baptiste Carpeaux to represent four parts of the world, and the one to the left of the image represents Africa with a broken chain around the ankle, whereas the one to the right represents America with the feather head dress.
And as we mentioned above, there are actually four allegorical statues, and as well as Africa and America, you also have Europe and Asia, and the one you can see in this photograph represents Asia, which has a braid in her hair and this faces to the East.
Yet in this close up photo you can see the inscription on the base of this bronze sculpture, which was cast by the Paris foundry called the C Matifat Fondeur, and as you can also see, it states the date of 1873 when this part of the monumental fountain was cast.
Now Jean Baptiste Carpeaux was a well recognised painter and sculptor, and he worked with Gabriel Davioud in the design of this monumental fountain, yet there were actually several artists who worked on this, but it was Carpeaux who sculpted the female allegorical figures that hold the globe, which were positioned as the specific cardinal points of North, East, South and West.
And in fact, it was back in 1867 that Jean Baptiste Carpeaux was first chosen to produce this fountain by Garbriel Davioud who was the person in charge of parks and gardens in Paris, but with the Franco-Prussian war and Paris commune, work was halted until afterwards, and therefore the whole fountain was not completed until 1875.
But, to give you a bit of background on Jean Baptiste Carpeaux, he was born in Valenciennes on 11th May 1827 and studied to become a French sculptor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and was even a pupil of the famous sculptor Francois Rude.
And having won the Prix de Rome he got noticed by the Emperor Napoleon III and received several commissions from him, plus he ended up teaching other artists such as Jules Dalou and Eugene Legrain, yet unfortunately his career was short lived, as he died on 12 October 1875, at the young age of only 48.
However, the memory of Jean Baptiste Carpeaux still lives on, not only because of the Fontaine des Quatre Parties du Monde, or the Carpeaux Fountain, but also because of a specific statue on the Palais Garnier Opera House called La Danse.
So, this last high definition photo shows the full fountain in all its glory that you can still get to see at the southern end of the Jardin des Grands Explorateurs in the 6th Arrondissement of Paris by the Avenue de l'Obersavoire.
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