Mermaid Fountain
Festival Hall, South Gardens
Long, quiet mirror pools flank the great Fountain of Energy, giving balance and calm to the entrance plaza, or South Gardens. They are oblong in shape with the farther ends curving into a graceful convex. The pools are surrounded by formal flowerbeds planted to correspond to the beds surrounding the central fountain, thus giving continuity to the whole. These beds are enclosed by a decorative fence which follows the outline of the pools; the entering paths, emphasized at the outer ends by flower urns, at the inner by sculptural light standards.
The curved ends of the pools are marked by Arthur Putnam's beautiful Mermaid Fountain, in duplicate. The crowning figure is by no means the conventional mermaid. She is free, full of grace, charmingly poised. The bifurcated tail is original and gives sculptural distinction as well as greater human appeal. The figure is instinct with a spirit of play but is not boisterous. Arthur Putnam is a Californian who has greatly influenced the development of art in the West.
Torch Bearer
Finial Figure, Festival Hall
As Festival Hall is the seat of the Exposition's musical life, all the sculpture on and about the building expresses a lyrical mood. The sculptor has contrived to give this feeling great variety; but, on the whole, the large reclining figures - the beautiful, relaxed Reclining Nymph and the Listening God over the great pylons - seem to be meditatively listening, the seated figures have a fanciful, lighter suggestion and those standing give a gentle effect of rhythm. The great arches are marked by a cartouche emphasizing this intention.
"The Torch Bearer" here pictured is lightly yet firmly poised above the minor domes. Exquisitely silhouetted against the sky, she has a spiral beauty, and the grace of one posed in the midst of a dance. The work of Sherry Edmundsen Fry, who made all the sculpture on Festival Hall, is, generally characterized by a classic correctness combined with a modern robustness. It lends itself well to this French Renaissance building - a type that depends upon its sculptured embellishments.
The Muse and Pan
Pylon Group, Festival Hall
At the base of the great pylons that flank the columnar entrance court of Festival Hall, are low pyramidal masses of foliage and flowering shrubs. An interesting group by Sherry E. Fry is set in the midst of each. The more evident figure, mounted upon a decorative pedestal, is identical in both groups - a classic, flower-bearing Muse, who seems to step softly forward. But though the Muse is repeated, the groups vary in the smaller seated figures at the base of the pedestals. This variation is not felt architecturally, for the figures balance perfectly and are nestled in a mass of leafage. At the feet of the Muse before the northern pylon a Boy Pan sits among the flowers, balanced in the southern group by a Young Nymph or Dryad.
The gentle dignity of the standing Muse and the reality and softness of her draperies recall the same sculptor's figure, Peace, exhibited in the department of Fine Arts and awarded a medal by the jury. The architectural beauty of these groups, in relation to the arched panels of the pylons forming their background, is worthy of study. It will be seen that the group, in spite of its statuesque quality, is actually part of the wall surface. The beauty of the ensemble is greatly enhanced by the sympathetic planting.
Boy Pan
Detail, Pylon Group, Festival Hall