Emblematic of Parisian street furniture, the Wallace fountains – named after their sculptor Sir Richard Wallace (1818-1890) – celebrate their 150th anniversary this year. A symbolic date which also marks the entry into the Carnavelet Museum of one of the oldest of them, this Wednesday, April 13.
Inspired by the “drinking fountains” of London, the first Wallace fountains were created in 1872 in Paris, when the very wealthy English sculptor Richard Wallace, living in Bagatelle, was struck by the shortage affecting the capital during La Commune.
The very first of them was installed on Boulevard de la Villette (19th) in 1872. The same year, another copy was installed on Place Denfert-Rochereau (14th). It is the same one whose arrival at the Carnavelet Museum, the History Museum of the city of Paris, has just been celebrated this Wednesday.
“On the occasion of their 150th anniversary, we thought it would be a good idea to bring one of these Wallace fountains into the museum. […] and it was very important for us that we benefit from an old cast,” explains Juliette Tanré-Szewczyk, curator in charge of sculptures and architectural and urban heritage at the Carnavalet Museum.
A form that remains almost unchanged
Because some of the fountains present in the Parisian public space are in fact much more recent, since the model has been preserved, and are today produced by the GHM Sommevoire foundry, in Haute-Marne, and reproduced on order from the Parisian municipality. .
“The mold has changed very little”, underlines the curator, who details its specificities: “it is a large green fountain, a typical color of the Parisian urban space placed on a geometric base. It is made up of four women, each of whom represents a virtue: kindness, charity, simplicity and sobriety, and who support a dome placed on their heads.
Between 1872 and the beginning of the 1930s, the sculptor Richard Wallace thus financed and donated 50 fountains to the City of Paris: 40 fountains based on this caryatid model and 10 fountains in the form of sconces. All the others – there are around a hundred in Paris today – have since been made from the original mould.
It should be noted that if the color green is the historic color of these fountains, as Napoleon III had wished, 7 Parisian examples have been repainted to “bring a touch of modernity” and “to reinforce their visibility”. A red fountain is thus visible at 66, avenue d’Ivry (13th) or even a yellow gold place Joseph Epstein (20th).
And to celebrate their 150th anniversary, the GHM Sommevoire foundry, the British Embassy in Paris and the Société des Fontaines Wallace are planning to organize a big party which will take place on September 24 and 25.