Modern Fountains
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”
Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.
Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.
It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.
1960s Argentine Vintage Modern Fountains
Granite, Bronze
Mid-20th Century Modern Fountains
Bronze
1990s North American Modern Fountains
Copper
1870s American Antique Modern Fountains
Bronze, Copper
19th Century German Antique Modern Fountains
Ormolu
1970s American Vintage Modern Fountains
Copper
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Fountains
Cement
Early 1900s French Antique Modern Fountains
Stone
1980s American Vintage Modern Fountains
Stone
Early 1900s English Antique Modern Fountains
Marble
20th Century Italian Modern Fountains
Carrara Marble, Bronze
16th Century Italian Antique Modern Fountains
Carrara Marble
Early 1600s Italian Antique Modern Fountains
Marble
Mid-20th Century American Modern Fountains
Bronze
1940s European Vintage Modern Fountains
Bronze
1960s American Vintage Modern Fountains
Metal