eMelbourne

Multimedia Content

Boy And Urn

Artist unknown
Bronze fountain
Date unknown
Fitzroy Gardens
(Melway ref. 2G B2)

Little is known of the history of this work. It was erected in the Fitzroy Gardens around 1900, possibly under the curatorship of John Guilfoyle, who was, at the turn of the century, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens. Positioned atop a rockery, the fountain features a bronze figure of a small boy tipping an urn held on his shoulder, from which water spills into the bowl below. The erection of this work was part of a tradition of placing classically inspired, or copied, statuary in the city's gardens, a practice that ceased by the 1930s.

City Of Melbourne