Friday, June 27, 2008

Boy and Bird Fountain


Boy and Bird Fountain in the Public Garden.
A small, nude boy crouched and holding in a bird in his proper left hand. He is kneeling on a rock formation out of which water spouts. The sculpture is mounted on a pedestal in the shape of a bird bath. The pedestal is attached to a large granite pool.

The bronze sculpture and granite base was originally designed by Bashka Paeff (1893-1979) in 1934. Dimensions of the boy: approx. H. 30 in.; Fountain: approx. Diam. 29 ft.

The sculpture is one of four built for fountains in the Boston Public Garden. The original sculpture was subsequently stolen, and a recast made in 1977. The second cast was of poor quality and deteriorated rapidly. The bird has been stolen. As a result, a third cast was made in 1992 by Paul King Foundry, the bird modeled using photographs.

4 comments:

Profile Not Available said...

It is such a shame when public art is vandalized. We had an entire statue in a local park cut from its mounting and stolen, probably for scrap. I am happy to see how much this one has been valued through the years!

TOG said...

The horse reminds me of New Orleans and the pond would be at home in Coral Gables. It looks good to me.

marcia@joyismygoal said...

The fountains of the day are diminishing i hope that we can care for them enough for them to stay aound

Jilly said...

I clicked on this to enlarge - it's just lovely. And such an interesting shot with the sculpture in the background and the people walking by. We've had that same vandalism in Menton. A sculpture of Le Corbusier's head was bashed off and chucked into the sea. Fortunately it was retrieved.