Wednesday 28 December 2011

Hyde Park, Archibald Fountain

The Archibald Fountain is a magnificent art deco style fountain located in Hyde Park. The central granite pedestal features a bronze sculpture of Apollo, surrounded by other mythological characters of ancient Greece on three lower pedestals. The fan-like shape of water formed by jets rising behind Apollo, represent the rising sun. The fountain is named after J.F. Archibald, owner and editor of The Bulletin, a newspaper which later became a magazine that encouraged writers to write about Australia. He bequeathed funds to build it to commemorate the association of Australia and France in World War I. It was designed by French artist Francois Sicard and was unveiled on 14 March 1932.

23 comments:

  1. Lovely image of a beautiful fountain. There are Hyde Parks just about everywhere, aren't there? We have one here in our city, also.

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  2. Excellent photo of this extremely beautiful and interesting fountain!

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  3. that is a very eye-catching fountain.

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  4. What an awesome fountain and a terrific capture, Jim! It is indeed eye-catching and what an interesting background! Hope your week is going well!

    Sylvia

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  5. Wow. Now THAT is a fountain. :-)

    Happy New Year!

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  6. Great the see fountains in a city - they sort of add life to an area.
    Nice capture Jim.

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  7. Wonderful mean to measure friendship and time.

    Please have a good Wednesday.


    daily athens photo

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  8. Very art nouveau fountain, Jim, with perhaps just a touch of fascist overtones! Reminds of some 30s artwork in Germany.
    Great shot!

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  9. Handsome fountain. Sounds like that guy made some good use of his money, encouraging writing about your beautiful country.

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  10. You don't often find a Deco central granite pedestal with ancient Greek sculpture :) But pretty impressive!

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  11. Great fountain. It has a lot going on. Sure seems to be a mix of styles.

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  12. It is such a complex fountain, and if you walk around it, it provides joy at every turn. I especially like it at night when walking along the avenue of figs from Park Street.

    Macquarie bequeathed us some joyous city design.

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  13. Ann, you might sometimes see children in the fountain when it's really hot in summer but it's discouraged.

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  14. This is really a very magnificent fountain with a lot of water!

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  15. Brilliant shot Jim. when you pull it in close, the deail is very clear..I like the water pouring out of the horses nostrils!

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  16. Very pretty - looks like you had beautiful light that day too!

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