Palaces and Courts of the Exposition Part 16

Coupled columns, suggesting glacial ice, form a colonnade around three sides of the court, the fourth side opening into the Avenue of Palms.

As you walk down the main path of this court you are held spell-bound by the fairy-like appearance of the albizzia lophantha, trimmed four feet in height, the top of which branches out into a head five feet across.

One has the feeling of meeting fairies with their skirts out ready for the dance - a veritable fairy ballet. Nothing could be more lovely than this remarkably treated tree. The rich yellow fluff that will soon appear, lasting for some four to six weeks, will be one note of the yellow chord to be struck in this court-pansy, daffodil, albizzia, the orange and the yellow background of niches. (This floral music for March and April.)

A symphony in yellows.

The groups of trees at the north are the eugenia myrtifolia.

Every one appreciates the blessing of the trees and flowers, without which the Exposition would have lost much of its beauty.

The flowers used at the opening of the Exposition can alone be given, but these will serve to show the plan of arrangement.

The six lions are by Albert Laessle, who has many fine examples of his animal life in the Fine Arts Palace.

The fountain of Beauty and the Beast, which should have been placed in the Court of Palms, the Court of Occidental Fairy Tales, is by a young San Franciscan, Edgar Walters, whose fine bears can be seen in the Fine Arts Palace.

The base of the fountain shows a procession of beasts - the bear, the cynocephalus ape, the lion.

Upholding Beauty and the Beast are fauns and satyrs, playing on their pipes.

Walk down the colonnades and take note of the coupled smoked ivory pilasters on the pink ground.

A fawn-colored ceiling has suspended from it Italian bronze lanterns - the bronze suggestive of the color of the blue eucalyptus. At night these lanterns glow with color.

In front of the Court of Flowers is "The American Pioneer," a fine meaningful equestrian figure, by Solon Borglum of Ogden, Utah.

I am taking the liberty of quoting Secretary Lane's inspiring words given at the opening of the Exposition - a fine retrospect that we must not lose sight of when we look upon the determined woodsman of the early American life:

As I went through these grounds yesterday, I looked for some symbol that would tell me the true significance of this moment, I saw that the sculptor had carved prophets, priests and kings; he had carved the conquerors of the earth, the birds in the air and the fish in the sea.

He had gone into legend and history for his symbols, but in none of these did I find the suggestion that I sought.

I found, however, in the court that lies before us, the simple, modest figure hidden behind some soldiers - a gaunt, slim, plodding figure, and I said to myself, there is the figure that represents this day, for without the American pioneer we would not be here this day, no banners would be flying, no bands playing.

He has-lived for centuries and centuries. He took sail with Ulysses and he was turned back. He took sail with Columbus, and when he heard that sailor shout, "Sail on and on," his heart was glad; but Columbus found his way barred, and then this pioneer landed at Plymouth Rock, and with that band of oxen he has trudged his way across the continent, he has gone through the sodden forests, where Nature for a thousand years has conspired to make his pathway impossible.

He has gone through the icy streams, climbed the mountains, tracked his way over the plains, over the land where there is no horizon, gone through the gorges where the t.i.tans have been, and at last he has got it, beside the Golden Gate, beside the sunset sea, and founded himself this city, this beautiful city of dreams that have come true. And he has done more than that, he has gathered around himself his sons, and now they set themselves down here to tell each other tales of their progress through the centuries.

The sons of the pioneers - theirs be the glory today, for they have slashed the continent in two, they have cut the land that G.o.d made as with a knife, they have made the seas themselves to lift the s.h.i.+ps across the barriers and mountains, and this accomplishment we celebrate.

They have brought the waters of the far Sierras and turned these waters into living light that put new stars in the heavens at night. They have hung their sky-line with a garden of flowers; they have worked a magic.

They have gathered here in all these temples to tell their victory - the pioneers - what they have done and in what manner. This city has been finished in blue and gold, in scarlet and purples and the greens of the sea, and burnt brown, and the scene shown the pioneer has made the architecture of the centuries to march before their eyes in columns and colonnades.

The long journey of this light figure of the pioneer is at an end, the waste places of the earth have been found and filled, but adventure is not at an end; the greatest adventure is before us, the gigantic adventures of an advancing democracy - strong, virile and kindly - and in that advance we shall be true to the indestructible spirit of the American pioneer.

The Italian Towers

Architect - Geo. Kelham of San Francisco.

Architecture - Italian Renaissance with Byzantine touches. (See picture facing page 22.)

These very beautiful towers are seen in pairs on either side The Court of Flowers and The Court of Palms, and a.s.sist in the fine balance preserved thruout the block of palaces.

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.