Impressions of a Saffron Tower
A blown glass and neon tower by Dale Chihuly was recently installed in front of the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Titled Saffron Tower, it stands in the very center of the Pool of Enchantment. This summer, an exhibition of Chihuly’s work is coming to the De Young. The exhibition will open on June 14th and end on September 28, 2008.
The Pool of Enchantment which has been greeting visitors at the entrance to the De Young since 1917, is by the famous San Francisco sculptor Earl Cummings. It consists of two pumas and an Indian boy playing a flute. Cummings was a protégé of Phoebe Apperson Hearst (mother of William Randolph Hearst). She financed his studies in Paris. Cummings studied as a pupil of Douglas Tilden at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute (the former Hopkins mansion. Douglas Tilden is one of California’s and San Francisco’s most famous sculptors. In his day Tilden was know as the Michelangelo of the West.) Cummings eventually became a leading light in San Francisco’s artistic and social circles. Cummings exhibited frequently at the Bohemian Club and after the catastrophic destruction of the city in1906 was appointed San Francisco’s first Parks Commissioner. He served on that post for 32 years and his influence is still seen all over San Francisco in the display of many well-know and public sculptures and monuments.
Earl Cummings created many of the well-known outdoor sculptures that grace San Francisco’s public spaces.
In addition to the Pool of Enchantment, the sculptures by Cummings that one finds in Golden Gate Park are:
The poet Robert Burns 1908
The Brown Gates (a life-sized bear and lion on 9-ft granite boulders) at the 8th and Fulton entrance to Golden Gate Park. 1908
http://www.ronhenggeler.com/Golden_Gate_Park/FultonStLion.html
http://www.ronhenggeler.com/Golden_Gate_Park/MountainLion.html
The Sundial on the front lawn of the De Young Museum.
The Rideout Memorial Fountain located in the center of the Music Concourse. In the center of the circular fountain is depicted a puma struggling with a python. http://www.ronhenggeler.com/Golden_Gate_Park/3-73.htm
The portrait sculpture of the first superintendent of Golden Gate Park John McLaren 1921
http://www.ronhenggeler.com/Golden_Gate_Park/3-74.htm
The Doughboy a World War I soldier 1931
Cummings also created
The Man Drinking Water at Columbus and Union, across from Washington Square in North Beach 1902
This piece was done in Paris in 1902 when Cummings was a student. His model for this bronze is the same model that Rodin used for his Walking Man (St. John the Baptist) that is now in the main Spreckels Gallery in the Legion of Honor.
He also did the The Padre in the Mission Dolores Cemetery 1908
http://www.ronhenggeler.com/Mission_Dolores/2-69.htm
http://www.ronhenggeler.com/Mission_Dolores/2-60.htm
http://www.ronhenggeler.com/Mission_Dolores/2-58.htm
http://www.ronhenggeler.com/Mission_Dolores/2-59.htm
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