Books: Palaces and Courts of the Exposition
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Juliet James >> Palaces and Courts of the Exposition
They are not alike, as you will see when you examine them. The pair
flanking The Court of Flowers is far simpler, and produces quite a
different effect, when illuminated, from its sister towers.
The vibrant red that seems to give throbbing life to these beautiful
towers is one of the chief glories of the night-glow.
The entrances at the base of the tower are accented by magnificent Siena
marble columns, and the coloring from these entrances to the top of the
towers is most unique.
The long rectangular height is admirably treated with a most original
diaper design.
Jules Guerin, the colorist, has used small areas of color on the towers
to play upon the color of the courts below.
For instance, note the pastel-pink walls, the greatest color area of the
courts reflected, as it were, upon the largest colored area of the
towers; the travertine of the courts acting as a background for the
towers, the burnt orange capitals shown in the use of the same color on
the tower, the Indian red appearing through the design as it appears on
the capitals.
The result is a sort of dissonance that makes the harmony of the courts
more charming than ever.
The most adroit management of the blue-checkered border is seen. It is
the means of drawing your colored diaper work toward that blue
background, the sky, and is superb in its connecting force.
The little towers above, with the turquoise-blue columns, show a most
daring use of color when you consider the colors below, but how
admirably that turquoise blue works onto the domes and the blue columns
of The Tower of Jewels.
The longer you look at the Italian Towers the more you come to feel
their subtle connection with the beauties around.
Only a genius could manipulate his colors as Jules Guerin has done in
this splendid work before you.
The repeated cartouche in turquoise blue has a most lovely effect upon
the whole.
Poised on the top of the Italian Towers is The Fairy (by Carl Gruppe).
She looks afar and sees the vision of this wondrous Exposition.
The Palace of Fine Arts
Architect - Bernard R. Maybeck of San Francisco.
Architecture - Old Roman in the main, with Italian Renaissance features.
In the background is the fire-proof art gallery of 113 rooms.
In front is a pergola, extending along an arc 1100 feet from end to end.
Ochre columns are closely grouped with pale green ones.
The Roman Corinthian capitals are burnt orange with an Indian-red
ground.
The columns sweep forward on either side the rotunda, in the dome of
which are Robt. Reid's eight murals.
1st Panel - Birth of European Art.
The central point of the picture is the altar on which is seen the
sacred fire. The guardian of this altar holds the torch. She has three
attendants, one holding a flask of oil, one pouring oil upon the altar
and ready to apply the torch should the flame grow dim, a third one
carefully watching the flame. An earthly messenger, holding back his
rearing steeds, leans from his chariot to receive the torch of
inspiration. A winged attendant checks for an instant the flight of
these steeds. In the left corner a woman holds a crystal ball in which
the future of art is revealed.
2nd Panel - The Birth of Oriental Art.
The forces of earth try to wrest inspiration from the powers of the air.
This is shown in an ancient Ming legend.
We see a Chinese warrior, mounted on a writhing dragon, combating an
eagle. Japan is seen under the great umbrella. Two more Oriental figures
are seen.
3rd Panel - Ideals in Art.
Greek ideal in the classic nude is seen.
Religion - Madonna and Child.
Heroism - Joan of Arc.
Youth and Material Beauty - Young woman on the left.
Absolute nature without ideal or inspiration - peacock.
Mystic figure in background holds cruse of oil to pour onto the sacred
flame.
A winged figure floats above with laurels for the victorious living.
A shadowy figure in foreground holds the palm for the dead.
Panel 4 - Inspiration in All Art -
Music, Painting, Architecture, Poetry, Sculpture.
The torch that kindles the arts is again seen.
The veil of darkness is drawn back, revealing the arts.
There are also four panels showing the four golds of California -
Gold,
Wheat,
Poppies,
Oranges.
"The whole scheme is to show the conception and birth of art, its
translation to earth, its progress and acceptance by man."
Below these murals, on the octagonal drum, is The Priestess of Culture,
by Herbert Adams, eight times repeated.
This outline has been taken from the official report.
The dome of the Rotunda is burnt orange, with the guilloche below it
worked out in turquoise green. Notice the great flower receptacles
filled with the reddish cryptomeria of Japan.
In front of the Rotunda is Ralph Stackpole's Kneeling Figure. She is a
devotee to art, beauty, truth, and kneels at the altar.
Among the trees along the pergola are many statues in bronze and marble.
Don't fail to see Janet Scudder's bewitching fountain figures as you
walk past the Pergola.
At the south, near the Pool, among the trees, sits St. Gauden's fine
"Lincoln."
Opposite is J. Q. A. Ward's statute of "Henry Ward Beecher."
Around the corner, "The Bisons," by Proctor.
Follow along by the Pool and you meet "The Scout," by Cyrus Dallin.
No words can describe the great poetic beauty of this Fine Arts Palace.
It seems to be the pivotal part of the Exposition, the goal of all
pilgrimages, the altar on which you place your ideals. It has so many
moods that one must see it in all seasons, during all times of the day,
and especially under the illuminations.
The figure of "Aspiration," by Leo Lentelli, is suspended - as is all
aspiration - over the main entrance of the Fine Arts Palace.
Walk over to Administration Avenue so that you can look across the Pool
at the panels.
They are by Bruno Zimm of New York.
They represent the Arts and a long procession of devotees.
In the center of one panel, called "The Unattainable in Art," one sees
Art represented. On either side is the battle between the idealists, the
materialists and the artists.
Many idealists have fallen, but the centaurs, the materialists, seem to
be held back by the artists who are striving to reach Art herself.
We are all striving to reach the so-called unattainable, but it means
the battle with materialism before we can do it. Yonder stand beauty,
health, truth - the flowers of the spirit - but we must pass the centaur
to make that figure of Truth attainable.
Then comes the Apollo Panel, and Apollo, the leader of the arts, in his
chariot, seems to be in a long procession preceded and followed by
devotees of the fine arts.
Next comes the Pegasus Panel, indicating inspiration in the arts. Ahead,
marches Music with his lyre, who, like a sort of Orpheus, is stilling
even the beasts.
The figures between the panels represent those who stand ready to do
battle for the arts.
Ulric H. Ellerhusen has done the flower boxes, with women at the
corners. Vines were to have fallen over the figures from the boxes,
allowing only a shoulder, a head, or a long line of the drapery to
appear, but the plans had to be changed, hence the figure now in full
evidence. The women are looking into the flower-laden boxes.
As you stand by the Pool, notice the shrubs and flowers near by.
Near the columns are Monterey cypresses.
Grey-green artemisia is between the columns.
Ten thousand periwinkles are on the banks.
Five thousand Spanish iris.
Many Japanese iris.
California incense shrub.
Yellow primroses.
One thousand white callas.
One thousand yellow callas.
One thousand California violets.
The shiny-leaved coprosma from Chili.
Blue-flowered buddleia.
Groups of pittosporum.
Pampas grass from Brazil.
Hundreds of daffodils (in March).
The weeping willows.
A great group on the north of erica, epacris, and cryptomeria.
Across from the erica is the red-berried cotoneaster horizontalis.
Near the columns on the north side by the Pool grows the purple
agapanthus.
The Catalina cherry is massed against the building on the north.
The pink-flowered escallonia is found under the columns near the Pool.
The orange-berried pyracantha cretaegus is seen in all its glory on the
north.
Heliotrope makes the air one of sweet perfume. Polygala, with pea-like
blossom, is seen near the base of the columns.
In the Pool have been put five hundred papyrus plants and five hundred
Japanese water lilies.
These are a few of the many wonderful blooms seen here.
The vistas and reflections are ever new and beautiful from every turn of
the Pool.
Palace of Horticulture
Architects - Bakewell and Brown of San Francisco.
Architecture - Byzantine in the arrangement of the domes (the mosque of
Ahmed I of Constantinople being the inspiration) and in the use of tall
finials suggesting minarets, but quite French in its ornamentation.
The building is one of great beauty and is considered one of the finest
exhibit palaces ever erected at any exposition.
The ornamentation below the dome is by Boutier.
The Caryatids of the Caryatid Porch are by John Bateman of New York.
The great opulence of the harvests of California is brought to mind by
the lavish abundance of the ornamentation on this building.
The combination of the smoked-ivory color of the travertine and the
lattice green of the decorations produces a more lovely effect.
The basket atop is over thirty-three feet in diameter.
The dome is 152 feet in diameter. St. Peter's dome is 137 feet; the
Pantheon dome is 142 feet.
Under the dome will be a constant display of hothouse plants. At the
opening of the Exposition were seen cinerarias and cyclamen of glorious
hue.
A wonderful display of orchids is seen in another portion of this great
building.
Those interested in orange packing will have a chance to see the
different stages of the packing as shown from the arrival of the fruit
at the packinghouse to the nailing of the cover on the box.
A model olive-oil press is in working order and will afford great
interest.
Great steel framework will enable the vast amount of glass of the dome
to withstand the wind pressure.
The dome will be illuminated three times a week.
It will at times look like a great pearl or a fiery opal.
Luther Burbank, the wizard of horticulture, and Carl Purdy, of bulb and
wild flower fame, will have headquarters at this palace during the
entire Exposition, ready to answer and help those who apply to them.
Sixty-five acres of land are to be devoted to horticultural interests.
The Netherlands have fifty-three thousand square feet in a wonderful
display of bulbs and other plants.
Horticultural Interests
All the areas on the Exposition site were composed of drifting sands or
sands that had been pumped in from the bay, upon which no ornamental
plant could grow.
It was necessary to bring down from the Sacramento Valley rich soil
(fifty thousand cubic yards), and spread sixteen thousand cubic yards of
fertilizer over that, in order to maintain lawns, trees and shrubs.
An immense number of trees, ranging from thirty to sixty feet in height,
were moved from Golden Gate Park and the Presidio of San Francisco. It
is the largest number of evergreen trees ever moved in connection with
any landscape work.
Many plantings will be made thruout the Exposition. It will require the
moving of four hundred thousand plants each time a change is made.
Work on the eucalyptus trees was started two years ago, when the plants
were six inches high, in flats.
These little trees were transferred into other flats and placed on hot
beds. After six weeks of this treatment they were transferred to 12-inch
boxes. They remained there for a period of eight months and then were
put into 18-inch boxes and made a vigorous growth. They are now 25 feet
in height.
In boxing large specimen trees the following method was adopted: The
trees were side-boxed, and, after the roots were cut, three inches of
space was allowed between the ball and the sides of the box, and this
three-inch space was secured with good surface soil so as to start
side-root action.
The plants were mulched and watered for a period of from four to six
months, when the bottom of the box was put on. This method has been most
successful in transplanting palms and trees in general.
(These facts were kindly given by Mr. Donald McLaren of the Department
of Landscape Gardening, San Francisco.)
The South Gardens
Throughout the Exposition these garden beds are to show a succession of
blooms. At the opening of the Exposition five thousand daffodils were in
bloom over two hundred thousand yellow pansies.
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The South Gardens, besides having two great pools, at the end of which
are the Mermaid Fountains by Arthur Putnam of San Francisco, have a most
decorative fountain called the Fountain of Energy.
In the pool below are seen great sea animals, representing:
1. The Atlantic Ocean, with coral in hair and seahorses in her hand,
riding on the back of an helmeted fish, suggestive of armored cruisers,
etc.
2. The North Atlantic, an Esquimaux riding the walrus, ready to spear
the enemy.
3. The South Atlantic, a negro riding on the back of a sea-elephant
playing with an octopus.
4. The Pacific Ocean on the back of a great creature unknown on land or
sea.
In the pool, on the dolphins' backs, ride most charming sea maidens.
Around the base of the earth are grouped sea spirits.
The earth shows on one side a great bull representing the Western
Hemisphere, a great lioness denoting the Eastern.
One sees the swirling of the waters around the figure of Panama.
Surmounting the globe, standing in his stirrups, rides Energy, the force
that has overcome the play of the waters and has put thru the Panama
Canal. Energy is strongly suggested by this stalwart male, who rides on,
having surmounted all difficulties. This is the great power that is
responsible for the completion of the Panama Canal, and Fame and Victory
blow bugles long and loud from his shoulders.
The idea of energy is further carried out by the splendid play of the
waters from the fountain itself, tremendous force being evident.
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At the west end of South Gardens, opposite the Band Concourse, are most
interesting groups of trees, shrubs and flowers. The members of
different floral families have taken the opportunity of meeting and
establishing themselves in the same neighborhood, and the result is
delightful for the lover of flowers. Now is the time to study
differences and similarities in the plant world - and our opportunities
are appreciated.
Notice the splendid groups of trees and shrubs on either side of
Horticultural Palace.
Monterey pines, Monterey cypresses, Lawson cypresses, acacias,
laurustinus, veronicas and dahlias are grouped so as to make a most
remarkable effect in form and color.
The Dracaena Canariensis or Canary palm, as we are in the habit of
calling it, and the Washingtonia robusta, or California fan palm, are
seen in alternate arrangement, double rows on either side the Avenue of
Palms.
On the south side of the Exposition grounds is a wall, twenty feet high,
of living green. It is made of mesembryanthemum spectabilis put in
boxes, six feet by two by two and a half inches, filled with earth, over
which is put a wire-mesh screen. This is the first time this work has
been tried and it has proved to be a thorough success.
Festival Hall
Architect - Robt. Farquhar of Los Angeles, California, widely known for
his fine domestic architecture.
On the south side of the Avenue of Palms, opposite the Court of Flowers,
stands the building in which the majority of the musical festivals of
the Exposition are to be held.
The main hall will hold three thousand people.
There are about five hundred conventions to meet here during the time
the Exposition is open.
The organ, of marvelous tone and sweetness, is one of the finest in the
world.
Edwin H. Lamare of London will give one hundred performances, each
recital beginning at 12 M. He starts his musicals the first of June.
The building is French in style, having been inspired by the Beaux Arts
Theatre, Paris.
It has a large dome, the cupola of which is lighted by projectors
beneath the floor of the building.
Sherry Fry of Iowa has done the sculpture, all of it being suggestive of
festivity.
Bacchus, with his grapes and wine skin, reclines on one side, while "The
Reclining Woman" listens from her position.
On the west are two Floras with their festoons of flowers.
Little Pan sits with his panpipes on an Ionic capital over which is
thrown a fawn skin. He has just stopped playing to watch the lizard that
creeps at his side.
The Torch Bearer, a most graceful figure, is poised on each corner dome.
A border of pinkish-lavender hydrangeas, four feet in diameter, with a
fringe of lavender and pink baby primroses, adds much to the beauty of
this spot.
Pinkish-lavender erica, or heath, borders the steps leading from
Festival Hall to the Avenue of Palms.
Above the western entrance one see the old Greek drinking horn, the
rhyton, suggestive of festivity.
The Color Scheme
Jules Guerin, probably the greatest man in his particular line in the
world, has had complete charge of the Exposition coloring.
He has used only five colors, but of course these colors are not all the
same tone.
All walls are pastel pink or a sunset shade, as seen in the Court of the
Ages. All niches are the same shade.
All ceilings and shells are ultramarine blue, with two exceptions. The
Court of the Ages is a pastel blue, and that of the Court of Palms is
fawn-color.
The domes of the Fine Arts Palace, and the Court of the Universe, are
burnt orange, or, as one writer has expressed it, "sea-weed washed with
brine."
The other domes are an oriental green, approaching copper-green.
The capitals when colored are burnt orange, with either an
ultramarine-blue or an Indian-red ground. Columnettes and a few
decorative bands are of turquoise-green.
There is a unity, a balance, a color beauty all unto itself. You see it
in the architecture, sculpture, and painting, in the arrangement of the
decorations, in the courts. Then over it all hangs the spirit of romance
such as surrounds the days of old Castile.
A mediaeval beauty and splendor bring longings for the pageants that
would add a world of interest.
There is a Graeco-Roman appeal in the long colonnades, the porticoes,
the fountains, the courts.
The Orient is strongly marked by the domes, the minaret suggestions, the
elephants, and minor details.
It is an Arabian-Nights-Tale - not a thousand and one nights, but two
hundred and eighty-eight.
Siena marble is used mainly at entrances and for pedestals. The
travertine is pinkish, grey and cream. Doorways in shadow are of lattice
green. Flag-poles are colored Spanish red. Lighting standards are green,
ochre, or eucalyptus blue. Banners are ochre and cadmium.
The world has never seen such an Occidental-Oriental harmony as in this
Exposition.
The traditions of the olden days are so strongly worked into these
palaces and courts that one feels more than he can tell when wandering
in this world of beauty; and we the laymen owe a debt of gratitude to
the architects, sculptors, painters, horticulturists, financiers,
engineers and the workmen who have given us this dream city of 1915.
Index
Abundance
Acroterium
Adams, Herbert
Adventurer
Adventurous Bowman
Agriculture
Air
Aitken, Robert
American Pioneer
Angel of Peace
Apollo Panel
Aquatic Maids
Arch of Rising Sun
Arch of Setting Sun
Armoured Horseman
Art Crowned by Time
Arts
Aspiration
Atlas
Autumn
Bacchus
Bacon, Henry
Bakewell and Brown
Bancroft, Milton
Bateman, John
Beach, Chester
Beauty and the Beast
Beecher, Henry Ward
Bisons
Borglum, Solon
Brangwyn, Frank
Bucrania
Burden Bearers
Burroughs, Edith Woodman
Calder, A. Stirling
Canephori
Caryatids
Ceres
Cortez
Crusader
Cummings
Dallin, Cyrus Edwin
Dawn of Life
Day Triumphant
Deneville, Paul
Descending Night
Dodge, Frank de Leftwich
Domes
Dome of Philosophy
Dome of Plenty
Du Mond, Frank Vincent
Eagles
Earth
Education
Electricity
Ellerhusen, Ulric H.
Elwell, Frank Edwin
Emerald Pool
End of the Trail
Fairy
Farquhar, Robert
Faville
Feast of the Sacrifice
Festivity, Fire
Flanagan, John
Fountain of El Dorado
Fountain of Energy
Fountain of Psychology of Life
Fountain of Youth
Four Golds of California
Fraser, James Earle
French, Daniel Cheater
Fruits and Flowers
Fruition
Fry, Sherry
Genii of Machinery
Genius of Creation
Gentle Powers of the Night
Gerlach, Gustave
Gruppe, Karl
Guerin, Jules
Harley, Charles
Harvest
Hassam, Childe
Hastings, Thomas
Helios
Hermes
Holloway, Chas.
Hospice of Santa Cruz, Toledo
Humphries, Charles A.
Imagination
Invention
Jaegers, Albert
Jaegers, August
Joy of Living
Kelham, George
Kneeling Figure
Konti, Isadore
Laessle, Albert
Lentelli, Leo
Lesson of Life
Lincoln, Abraham
Lions
Listening to the Sound of the Ages
Longman, Evelyn
McKim, Meade and White
McLaren, John
MacNeil, Hermon A.
Man Receiving Instruction in Nature's Law (Mural)
Manship, Paul
Matthews, Arthur
Maybeck, Bernard R.
Men from Atlantic
Mermaid Fountain
Miner
Mullgardt, Louis Christian
Music
Nahl, Perham
Nations That Have Crossed the Atlantic (Mural)
Nature
Natural Selection
Newman, Allen
Niehaus, Charles
Old World Handing Burden to New World
Oriental Flower Girl
Pan
Panama Canal (Murals)
Patigian, Haig
Pegasus
Pegasus Panel
Peters
Philosopher
Piccirilli, Furio
Pirate
Pizarro
Pool of Reflections
Power of Industry
Priest
Priestess of Culture
Priestess of Religion
Primitive Man
Proctor, P.
Providence
Pursuit of Pleasure
Putnam, Arthur
Rain
Reclining Woman
Reid, Robert
Richardson, Symmes
Rise of Civilization
Rising Sun
Roth, Frederick
Rumsey, Charles
Saint Gaudens, Augustus
Scout, The
Scudder, Janet
Seed Time
Setting Sun
Simmons, Edward
Spanish Cavalier
Spring
Stackpole, Ralph
Star, Jeweled
Stea, Cesare
Steam Power
Summer
Sunshine
Survival of the Fittest
Thought
Tonetti
Torch Bearer
Triumph of the Fields
Unattainable In Art
Varied Industries
Victorious Spirit
Walters, Edgar
Ward, J. Q. A.
Ward and Blohme
Warrior
Water
Weinert, Albert
Weinmann, A. A.
Whitney, Gertrude V.
Winter, Workman
Young, Mahonri
Zimm, Bruno
Zodiac, Signs of