WALLACE FOUNTAINS

I was certain I had already written about Wallace fountains, mainly because this mystery man has been living in my computer for several years, and I was sure if I trailed through the photos that accompany the various blog posts his face would appear as I scrolled, but no.

 

Trapped in the Paris sewer museum several years later!

 

He is probably posing for his dear wife who is in charge of taking holiday snaps, and he is pointing to the map of locations of Wallace fountains, I don't know how many there are in Paris, now, but originally there were 50.

 

O.K. lets rewind. I spent my teenage years living in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, I attended Wallace High School, learnt about the 'Wallace Collection' of artworks housed in London, played (and later 'courted') in Wallace Park. I was aware of the Wallace fountains; one of which was in Wallace park and I thought I remembered others in the Market square and Castle Gardens but apparently there are only 2 left of the 5 he originally donated to the town so I must be mistaken.

 

 

This is the Wallace Park fountain, it should be painted deep green to tone in with the trees. But if you think that turquoise is garish, just wait......

 

The history of Richard Wallace is bizarre, if you are interested read this https://parisianfields.com/2013/05/12/the-man-who-gave-paris-50-fountains/

And really why so many things are named after him in Lisburn I'm not quite sure, as I have the feeling it was his father Richard Seymour-Conway who did more to benefit the town (his names were used for two of the 'houses' at school and there are streets named after him). Richard Wallace was an M.P. for Lisburn, he must have done a good enough job at that to be lauded so.

 

Back to the fountains. They were designed and produced in France (Wallace lived for a period in France) and came into being to improve the lot of poor Parisians, in fact to try and keep them from the demon alcohol at a time when availing yourself of safe drinking water (after the Franco-Prussian war) was a problem. Indeed one of the ladies that support the 'roof' of the fountain, caryatieds being the architectural name for them, is the personification of 'sobriety', the others portray kindness, simplicity and charity.

 

 One of the fountains in Paris

 

So now on my to do list is a visit to Paris to trail poor husband around locating the remaining fountains. Firstly though I need to return to Toulouse and track down the ones there, and just like the Lisburn ones some have gone missing. We saw 2 on our recent visit, this one in the Jardin des Plantes and another nearby in the 'Grand Rond' which was closed off to the public at the time because the trees had been treated against some virulent disease. Originally 6, now in the city 4, seen 2.

 

 

Same story in Bordeaux. Originally 6, still there 4, 1 ended up in Grenada and then was destroyed by a hurricane, and the others gone awol.

And also closer to home, 2 have been sighted in Marseille (not by me - yet!)

I also believe there is one in Uzes.

So I'd like to know why? Did Richard know these extra ones were sneaking off the production line on  Friday afternoon and heading off to points south??

I'm sure there must be somebody out there somewhere who has made it their life's ambition to photograph the entire set, if so they've not shared it with the internet.

 

Finally, making Lisburn's turquoise fountain look quite pale, what would Richard make of these?

 

 

And a little extra.

Sir Richard Wallace is buried in Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris. His wife was French, she lived for many years in London but never learnt to speak English. And in 1883 he won 'Best pig in Show' at Smithfield livestock show - well his pig won.

There you go, interesting facts, well for me at least.

 

http://fontaines-wallace-fountains.e-monsite.com/ for my future reference