Note Type
Artist’s Intent NoteNote
"The Fountain reveals Gosse’s sustained interest in celebrating the revelation of ordinary, communal life using unposed subjects. Amid the movement of the street, three children draw water from a public fountain in a tightly cropped composition. As in many of her figurative works, the faces of the youths are obscured—a visual device that captures the spontaneity of unstaged, workaday routines. This painting was likely created using sketches that Gosse completed onsite. After recording memorable details from a scene, she would later return to her studio before translating them into a painting. Gosse’s inclusion of the small trough at the fountain’s base indicates that this site offered a limitless supply of refreshment for humans and animals alike on a hot summer’s day" (Impressionist Legacies 58).