Architectural Heritage

EDITH BARRETTO STEVENS PARSONS (1787-1956)
A bronze fountain sculpture entitled Duck Baby, cast circa 1911 (c. 1911 United States)

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EDITH BARRETTO STEVENS PARSONS (1787-1956)

Bronze

Signed in the cast E. B. Parsons with Copyright. Gorham Co Founders

A bronze fountain sculpture entitled Duck Baby, cast circa 1911, by Edith Barretto Stevens Parsons (1878–1956.)
Edith Parsons studied with Daniel Chester French, sculptor of the Lincoln Monument in Washington, at the Art Students League of New York, afterwards apprenticed to James Earle Fraser. An early commission was to design the pediment for the main entrance to the Liberal Arts Building at the St Louis Fair in 1902. This was followed in 1908
by her showing Earth Mother at the National Academy of Design. Duck Baby, most likely inspired by her daughter Edith Gilman Parsons, is her most famous work. Shown at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915 as a garden exhibit in the colonnade Duck Baby was instantly popular with the public, ‘In the presence of so much that is weighty and powerful,the popularity of Duck Baby is a significant and touching indication of
the world’s hunger for what is cheerful and mirth provoking.’ The work even inspired Leo Robinson to pen the poem After the Lights Went Out.
Similar works followed; Turtle Baby in 1915, Frog Baby 1917, Joy Fountain 1919, Little Duck Fountain 1921, Big Duck 1925 and Baby Pan 1930.