This past summer as Alice and I were riding to a concert at the Hatch Shell, she yelled out “Daddy! a Dog!!” I stopped only to find the coolest Art-Deco Dog Fountain I’d ever seen (not that I’ve seen more than one Art-Deco Dog Fountain).
After a little bit of searching around I found out some interesting stuff. The “Lotta Fountain” was built by the bequest of Lotta Crabtree (1847-1924) a millionaire actress who earned her wealth as a late 19th century Shirley Temple.
She had left money in order that a fountain might be built to refresh horses, dogs, men and birds. After years of battling in court over her will, a commission was finally given to Katherine Lane Weems who finished the project in 1939.
Weems was (obviously) a New England Deco sculptor. Here she is at work in her studio:
She’s particularly famous for her Harvard Rhinos:
So, what makes Weems a Deco Sculptor, or the Dog a “Deco-Dog?” As usual, Oxford online is no help, giving articles either too long or too short, but here is a tidbit:
The Art Deco movement encompassed a wide variety of decorative arts that were characterized by a certain sensuousness of curving forms, a lavish employment of luxurious materials and bold combinations of colours and floral patterns.
Okay, so what does that mean? The spire of the Chrysler Building is of a “curving form,” but I’m not really sure about it being sensuous. The Hatch Shell, (just down the way form the Deco Dog) is pretty curvy too, but sensuous?
I think the Wiki article might best describe my impression—an “opulent” and “lavish” style with “use of stepped forms and sweeping curves.” It seems (to me at least) to have a good share of Utopian optimism.
Returning to Lotta’s dog, I’d have to say it is the sharp angles contrasted by the sweeping curves that define it as Deco for me. That, coupled with the naive optimism that someone could create a simple water fountain for people horses and dogs that would last more than a few decades in Boston. Ah well, it was a really nice day.