LORADO TAFT

/    "Fountain of Time" or simply "Time" by Artist Lorado Taft, finished in 1920, was constructed from a new type of molded, steel-reinforced concrete that was claimed to be more durable and cheaper than alternatives.  Located west of the Midway Plaisance in Washington Park, Chicago, Il and measuring 24 ft × 126 ft 10 in × 23 ft 6 in.  It is said to be the first of any kind of finished work of art made of concrete.  Lorado Taft Midway Studios is located a just south of the Midway Plaisance.

        Inspired by Henry Austin Dobson's poem, "Paradox of Time", and based on the poems lines: "Time goes, you say? Ah no, Alas, time stays, we go." the fountain shows a cloaked figure of time observing the stream of humanity flowing past.and with its 100 figures passing before Father Time, the work was created as a monument to the first 100 years of peace between the United States and Great Britain, resulting from the Treaty of Ghent in 1814.  Although the fountain's water began running in 1920, the sculpture was not dedicated to the city until 1922.  Lorado Zadoc Taft came to be April 29, 1860 in Elmwood, Illinois and died in his home studio in Chicago, October 30, 1936. Home Schooled by his parents, Taft earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Illinois, where his father was a professor of geology.  After graduation in 1880, he left for Paris to study sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts .  Upon returning to the United States in 1886, he settled in Chicago, where he taught at the Art Institute of Chicago, until 1929.In 1903 Taft published The History of American Sculpture, the first survey of the subject.

Depending on who you talk to, Taft is perhaps better known for his published writings than for his sculpture. The revised 1925 version of this text was to remain the standard reference on this subject until Wayne Craven published "Sculpture in America" in 1968.  His sculpture of Alma Mater at Urbana has come to symbolize something significant.  Among other honors, Taft's accomplishments include his election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters and membership in the National Sculpture Society.  Considered a master American sculptor, writer and educator.

                            "Fountain of the Great Lakes" 

is an allegorical sculpture by Lorado Taft. As the name suggests, this fountain represents the five great lakes.. The five women are so arranged that the water flows through them in the same way water passes through the Great Lakes. 'Superior' is on the top and 'Michigan' on the side both empty into the basin of 'Huron' who sends the stream to 'Erie' whereas 'Ontario' receives the water and gazes off as it flows into the ocean..The fountain is Taft's response to Daniel Burnham's complaint at the Columbian Exposition in 1893 that the sculptors charged with ornamenting the fairgrounds failed to produce anything that represented the great natural resources of the west, especially the Great Lakes. Today Taft is best remembered for his various fountains.