Philadelphia 11: fountains

For a city with freezing winters, Philadelphia has quite a few fountains. Most of them are concentrated around the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. One of the largest and most striking is directly in front of the museum, at the base of the stairs in the Eakins Oval. The only picture I took of the whole thing didn't come out very well, so I'll just tell you that in the middle is an equestrian statue of George Washington, raised on a plinth, and surrounding it are figures obviously based on Bernini's Fountain of the Rivers, only with American types and animals.

On either side and at some distance from this extravaganza are simpler fountains like the one below.

As you go up the steps to the Museum, you see sections obviously designed for running water.

Directly across from the Museum entrance, in the plaza up the stairs, is another fountain, though it was dry when I was there.

Inside the museum you find still more fountains. The one below is in a large rotunda with French post-impressionist paintings. The photo isn't that great (the pool is fairly large and I may have zoomed in too much), but you can see the top of a van Gogh Sunflower canvas reflected in the water. This fountain is directly in front of Cezanne's Large Bathers, which is in an alcove that was hidden by screens for most of my visit. One guard told me they were painting the walls, but I'm not sure she was right since the paintings were still on the wall and uncovered, since I could see them when they occasionally opened the screens for a moment to pass in or out. If you were painting the wall around a Cezanne, wouldn't you move the painting, or at least drape a few dropcloths over it? The alcove was re-opened on the last day of my visit, so I avoided the disappointment of missing one of the Museum's greatest pictures.

The galleries of eighteenth-century French art rate another fountain, this one featuring Venus herself. That's the same fountain in the two following pictures, only taken from different angles at different times with different settings.

The fountain below is part of the reflecting pool in front of the Rodin Museum.

The one below, in Logan Circle, is called the Swann Fountain, and represents Philadelphia's three major rivers. It was designed by Alexander Stirling Calder, son of Alexander Milne Calder (who created the William Penn statue on top of City Hall) and father of Alexander Calder (who created the mobiles). A large Calder mobile called Ghost hangs in the lobby of the Museum of Art, and so thanks to a handy arrangement of windows you can see work by three generations of Calders all lined up. That's one of those things guidebooks will always mention, so I felt obliged to pass it on.

The currently dry fountain below is in Rittenhouse Square, though presumably the colors streaking the nymph are a later addition from the fun-loving residents of the Square.

The fountain below is part of the Fairmount Waterworks, right down the hill from the Museum. I have more pictures of the Waterworks which I will post later.

A city can never have too many fountains.