In the summer of 2022, the agency in charge of Nantes’ drinking fountains approached Le Voyage à Nantes to attract the public’s attention to the availability of potable water throughout the city.
While reflecting on the town’s fountains, Le Voyage à Nantes quickly arrived at the most emblematic drinking fountain in all of Paris and France: the Wallace fountain.
Created after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the 1871 Commune to slake the thirst of Parisians, Wallace fountains were the brainchild of British philanthropist Richard Wallace, and designed by Nantes-based sculptor Charles-Auguste Lebourg to be true works of art.
For the summer of 2024, a collaboration was finalized with artist Cyril Pedrosa to renovate Nantes’ already-existing fountains and create 4 new ones, so that Le Voyage à Nantes could continue to make the city a garden for one and all.
Richard Wallace
In many ways, Richard Wallace can be seen as a pioneer of philanthropy. Wallace devoted his energy and much of his fortune to Paris and its inhabitants: he set up field hospitals (for the wounded – one for French soldiers, the other for British soldiers remaining in Paris), donated money or goods (bread, coal, or wood), raised funds in favour of the wounded or poor, and crisscrossed Paris distributing food vouchers in arrondissement town halls.
His first fountain was set up on Boulevard de la Villette in late July 1872.
Charles-Auguste Lebourg
Nantes-born sculptor Charles-Auguste Lebourg was more than familiar with Wallace, having already created marble busts for his family.
Although the Wallace fountain caryatids are perhaps his best-known work, many other statues of his can be admired in Nantes, including his infantryman on the Monument à la gloire des combattants de 1870 in Cours Saint-Pierre, the bronze medallion of Émile Mellinet on his tombstone in Cimetière Miséricorde, or his Enfant à la sauterelle (“Child with Grasshopper”) and Prêtresse d’Euleusis (“Priestess of Euleusis”) sculptures in the Musée d’Arts de Nantes.
Lebourg’s body of work is substantial, and his achievements are not limited to Wallace fountains or his native city, as illustrated by his allegorical sculpture of Nantes on the west façade of the Paris’ Hôtel de Ville town hall.
L’œuvre de Charles-Auguste Lebourg est considérable et ses réalisations ne se limitent pas aux fontaines Wallace et à sa ville natale, comme en témoigne, sur la façade ouest de l’Hôtel de Ville de Paris, sa sculpture de la Ville de Nantes.
Works of art in the city
Fountains should be “tall enough to be seen from afar, but not so tall as to detract from the harmony of the surrounding landscape”. Their shape must be “both convenient to use yet pleasing to the eye”. Their materials must be “weather-resistant, easy to mould, and simple to maintain”. Finally, their cost must be “affordable enough to allow the installation of dozens of fountains”.
To this day, the GHM (Générale d’hydraulique et de mécanique – i.e., company creating urban equipment) uses the same savoir-faire to make Wallace fountains. The manufacturing process consists of 80 cast and assembled parts, and has changed little over the past 150 years.
Nantes green
“Nantes green” is the designated colour for all of downtown Nantes’ street furniture. However, there is currently no precise definition or reference for this colour. To define it, an art restorer-curator looked at a cross-section of the fountains to identify the different layers of colour applied to them since they were installed.
Wallace fountains today
Today, there are more than 52 Wallace fountains in greater Paris region, and over 75 throughout the rest of the country.
The success of Wallace fountains extends well beyond France’s borders, with fountains in South Africa, Brazil, Canada, Spain, Portugal, New Orleans and Los Angeles, Great Britain, Italy, Jordan, Mozambique, Switzerland, China, Georgia, and other parts of the world. This expansion illustrates the Wallace fountain’s international renown and its impact beyond national borders.
In the 150 years of their existence, Wallace fountains have become a source of inspiration for countless artists: painters, singers, photographers, filmmakers… Many of them refer to the “Wallace” as a symbol of urban life, and a fountain that has become an instantly recognizable icon of France.
En savoir plus5 Wallace fountains in Nantes
The 5 fountains will be removed for complete restoration from February to May 2024.
The Wallace fountains project
Le Voyage à Nantes 2024
Le Voyage à Nantes invited artist-author-illustrator Cyril Pedrosa to design a project involving these iconic fixtures of the city’s history imagined by an artist-sculptor from Nantes 150 years ago. The 5 fountains will be removed for complete restoration from February to May 2024.
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Visit the GHM factory: the exclusive foundry for Wallace fountains for over 150 years.
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