Existing comment:
Model for the Tyler Davidson Fountain, Cincinnati, ca 1868
August von Kreling
Inscribed "To the People of Cincinnati," the graceful Tyler Davidson Fountain symbolizes the significance of art to the community. Through more than a century of change, this public sculpture has reigned as the icon of the Queen City. Its water themes provide tangible reminders of the city's past as a commercial center depended upon the river. Yet, its more important messages may lie in the primary role of this work of art in the life of the city and in the patronage that made that possible. The fountain's enduring status testifies to the pride Cincinnati residents take in their cultural heritage.
Henry Probasco (1820-1902) commissioned this fountain in memory of Tyler Davidson, his partner in the wholesale hardware business. Deeply religious, Probasco despised the latest European fountains with nymphs and sea gods frolicking in the nude. He was in despair when a drawing caught his eye at the Royal Bavarian Foundries in Munich, Germany, made by August von Kreling, twenty-five years earlier. It presented realistic vignettes of ordinary citizens enjoying the benefits of water. The resulting fountian is capped by the Genius of the Waters, who dispenses the precious resource to a daughter refreshing her aging father, a farmer awaiting rain, a mother and child bathing, and a man whose house is ablaze. Probasco hoped the fountain would "advance public taste, health, and morals," and that young people would glean the message that virtue brings rewards.
The small-scale model was shipped to Probasco and displayed in the library of his Clifton mansion. At a celebration there, Mayor Charles Wilstach proclaimed, "Let us, in the erection of this magnificent fountain, signify that Cincinnati is destined to be not only the seat of learning and of literature, but of high art." |