SAUVAGEAU, Louis

Nymph sculptor identified by Justine Gain, intern from the Ecole du Louvre, August 14, 2018. For the lower figures, one is probably Reverie on the Seashore by Joseph, comte de Nogent dated 1857. The other one is probably Meditation by Pierre Travaux, ca. 1850. Sculptors identified by Laure de Margerie, August 13, 2018.

Fontaine commémorative Mills, appelée aussi Hélène au puits

Mills Memorial Fountain, also known as Helen at the Well

1909, model before 1865

cast zinc for figures, iron for fountain

type: other

Dimensions (HxWxD): H. 30 ft; first bassin: diam. 7 ft; second bassin: diam. 10 ft

Credit Line: Gift by General Anson S. Mills in memory of his parents, James P. and Sarah Mills, deceased

Photo credit: ph. courtesy of The Indiana Album

© Artist : public domain

Thorntown, Indiana, Main Street, Market Street

Provenance

• 1909, Gift by General Anson S. Mills in memory of his parents, James P. and Sarah Mills, deceased. The fountain was originally at the intersection of Main Street and Market Street
• 1944, donated to a World War II scrap drive and melted down
• (2005, A replica by Robinson Iron was installed in front of the newly expanded Public Library)

Bibliography

• http://www.forensicgenealogy.info/contest_449_results.html [accessed August 15, 2018]
• http://images.indianahistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/P0391/id/1007 [accessed August 15, 2018]
• https://indianaalbum.pastperfectonline.com/photo/922C319B-5AA3-44F0-820A-295136524835 (accessed August 29, 2019)
• https://e-monumen.net/ : catalogue de Ducel-Val d'Osne, nombreux exemplaires de la fontaine La Source/many copies of the fountain La Source (accessed August 29, 2019)
• https://anosgrandshommes.musee-orsay.fr/index.php/Detail/entities/12546 (accessed August 29, 2019)
• 1868 Virtue and Co
  The illustrated catalogue of Universal Exhibition, London, Virtue and Co, 1868, p. 180 (version par Ducel, 1867)
• 1879 Paris
  Inventaire général des oeuvres d'art appartenant à la Ville de Paris, Paris, A. Chaix et Cie, 1879, Tome I, p. 45 (fontaine originale pour la place aux Gueldres à Saint-Denis)
• 1900 Val d'Osne
  Album n°2, Fontes d'art, Paris, Société anonyme des Fonderies d'Art du Val d'Osne, 1900, planche 614, n° 511 (modèle de la Nymphe)
• 1909 Municipal Journal
  Anonyme, Miscellaneous: Mills Memorial Fountain, Municipal Journal and Engineer, Vol. XXVII, No. 18, 3 novembre 1909, p. 682
• 1921 Lami
  Stanislas Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'école française au dix-neuvième siècle, Paris, Honoré Champion, 1921, Tome IV, p. 237 (fontaine originale pour la place aux Gueldres à Saint-Denis)
• 2009 Grissom
  Carol A. Grissom, Zinc Sculpture in America 1850-1950, Newark, University of Delaware Press, 2009, p. 313-314 (6.16 Water Nymph), 387 (6.53 Meditation)
• 2016 Ritman
  Kassie Ritman, Images of America Boone Country, Charleston, Arcadia Publishing, 2016, p. 108

Related works

• Fragment of the nymph's head, zinc, Thorntown, Thorntown Heritage Museum.
  The founder Ducel exhibits a copy of the fountain, in cast iron, at the Paris International Exposition of 1867. The fountain is edited in cast iron by Ducel, then by the Val-d'Osne Foundry.
  Zinc edition in the US:
  - the figure called La Source: by J. L. Mott Iron Works, New York, starting 1896 (1896 catalogue, pl. 242-H and 244-H, and 1901 catalogue, pl. 308-K)
  - the figure of the Source called Water Nymph, combined with Two Basin Fountain: by J. W. Fiske, New York, c. 1908-1913.
  Other copies exist (this list is not comprehensive):
  - Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Botanical Garden: The Source, cast iron, 1862
  - Canada, Halifax, Public Gardens: Victoria Jubilee Fountain
  - France, Clermont-L'Hérault: The Source, cast iron, 1869
  - France, Saint-Denis: Fountain of the Place aux Gueldres, the statue of the woman personnifies the River Seine, 1865 (the fountain, does not exist any more, it has been replaced by a stone sculpture)
  - France, Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, parc des Thermes: The Source, cast iron, 1862
  - Spain, Barcelona, Joan Maragall Gardens: Aguadora or Aiguadora
  - Uruguay, Montevideo, Parque Rodo: The Source, cast iron
  - USA: numerous copies, see on this website.