Bailey Fountain

Bailey Fountain
Map
ArtistEgerton Swartwout (architect)
Eugene Savage (sculptor)
Completion date1929-1932[1]
MediumFountain
LocationProspect Park, Brooklyn, New York City
Coordinates40°40′26″N 73°58′12″W / 40.67389°N 73.97009°W / 40.67389; -73.97009

Bailey Fountain is an outdoor sculpture in New York City at the site of three 19th century fountains in Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, New York, United States. Renovated in 1956[2] and 2005-06,[3] the 1932 fountain was funded by philanthropist Frank Bailey as a memorial to his wife Marie Louise Bailey.[4] After 1974 thefts, some sculpture elements were stored for safekeeping. The bronze Art Deco design of the Bailey Fountain consists of six monumental figures beginning with the top two, a man representing Wisdom with his left hand on the tiller steering the ship of Life and a woman representing Felicity with her right hand holding a cornucopia. Below them are two other statues, one a chubby standing child helping to shoulder that cornucopia while the second is a laughing Greek mythological figure called Nereus who is the eldest son of Pontus the Sea and Gaia the Earth. To the sides of the fountain are the two remaining aquatic Nereides / sea nymph figures with upper torsos emerging from the water their heads back trumpeting with conch shells as their fish tails twist in the background.[2]

  1. ^ Lancaster, Clay (1972) [1967]. Prospect Park Handbook. New York: Long Island University Press. ISBN 0-913252-06-9.
  2. ^ a b "Grand Army Plaza: Bailey Fountain". New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
  3. ^ Prospect Park Alliance Annual Report 2006 (PDF). Prospect Park Alliance (Report). 2006. p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 28, 2008. Retrieved January 11, 2008.
  4. ^ "Bailey Fountain, NYC Parks profile". New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Retrieved July 1, 2014.