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Photograph by Michael Fredericks
Shell Fountain (Child Holding a Shell)
Photograph by Michael Fredericks

Shell Fountain (Child Holding a Shell)

Artist Janet Scudder American, 1869 - 1940
Foundry Roman Bronze Works American, New York
Dateoriginal design commissioned 1912
Mediumbronze, copper (plumbing pipe)
DimensionsOverall: 15 3/4 in. (40 cm)
Diameter: 5 1/8 in. (13 cm)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineGift of Mary H. Beeman to the Pruyn Family Collection
Object number1995.3.6
On View
On view
Collections
  • Sculpture
  • American Paintings & Sculpture
Markings"JANET SCUDDER" in block printed, sans serif capital letters in the bronze on the top of the base near the figure's left foot. "ROMAN BRONZE WORKS N-Y-" on the lower edge of the base below the right foot.
DescriptionFountain sculpture in the form of a young girl holding a shell above her head. The index finger of the figure's right hand, which holds the shell, is open at the tip and water would fall from the shell to her left arm and the hand with outspread fingers before falling onto her left foot and the round bronze plinth that the figure stands on.

See Notes for information re original commission. This is a later (after 1912) reduced casting, the original appears from photos to have been lifesized.

The figure is patinated with dark brown and greens.

Mounted to a green marble block (3 3/4"x 6" x 6") that has a through hole at the center for the plumbing as well as two smaller round holes into which pegs on the underside of the bronze would fit. The whole is mounted at the center of a white marble basin on pedestal shaped in adaptation of an ancient Roman calyx two-handled cup.Exhibition History"A Glens Falls Legacy: The Pruyn Family; A Landscape Revealed: Photographs from The Pruyn Sisters' Gardens," Charles R. Wood Gallery, The Hyde Collection, June 8 - August 24, 2008.

"American Artists in Europe", Whitney-Renz Gallery, The Hyde Collection, February 28 - June 11, 2017ProvenanceGlens Falls, NY, Mrs. Nell P. Cunninghm
1962, Queensbury, NY, Mary Hoopes Beeman (by inheritance)
1995, Glens Falls, NY, The Hyde Collection Trust (by bequest)

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