PALM 00011

Yandell, Enid

Pan/Hogan's Fountain

1905

Metal/Stone

Bronze/Vermont Granite

In 1903, not long after the completion of Ruff Memorial Fountain and Wheelman's Bench, Yandell was approached by General John Breckinridge Castleman (1841—1918), founder of the Louisville Parks Department and a close friend of the Yandell family, to design a fountain for Cherokee Park. Hogan's Fountain was commissioned by prominent merchant William J. Hogan and his wife, who actively collaborated with Yandell about the choice of subject matter. By that time, Yandell was living and working from her studio in Paris, where she created the Louisville work and had it shipped to the States for construction.

Hogan's Fountain, which was originally intended as a watering fountain for horses and dogs, is topped with a small bronze figure of the mythical Pan, god of nature, the wild, shepherds, flocks, and goats, among other things. Pan, who has the body of a human but the hindquarters and legs of a goat, appears to dance in a patch of lily pads and cattails, holding his famous lute above his head, presumably having just used it to call the animals of the nearby park. Yandell represents Pan's "flock" below, where bronze turtles spout water into the large basin and, located underneath at the base of the fountain, several small dog heads act as water fountains for park—goers' leashed dogs. Yandell, always intent to capture her subjects accurately, is said to have modeled the bronze turtles from live turtles she found near Louisville. (KTF)