Déesse des eaux

Historic site and monument
Historic patrimony
Sculpture
19th C

Déesse des eaux, Rue Source de l'Hôpital, 03200 Vichy

Le parc : salle de repos — ©Carte postale, vers 1910 (Fonds patrimoniaux de Vichy)

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The Déesse or Nymphe des eaux is a work by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, one of the most well-known sculptors of the Second Empire, also famous for a young Auguste Rodin having been his assistant.

The statue was commissioned in 1865 to adorn the casino's south facade, in tandem with the caryatids representing the four seasons on the north facade overlooking the park. Originally, it was placed in a niche behind the theatre stage, near the Rue du Casino. After the opera house was built in 1901, the theatre became an amusement arcade, and the statue was moved to free up a window. It was then placed in the Salon de Repos in the middle of the Horseshoe Gallery, near the Source de l'Hôpital, where it stayed until the destruction of the salon in 1945. It was restored and moved to its present location during renovation work on the Parc des Sources in 2024. The nymph, crowned with laurel, and the chubby little children accompanying her symbolise the virtues of Vichy's thermal waters. Carrier-Belleuse made the most of his stays in Vichy, painting a bust of the Emperor, along with portraits of other famous figures who frequented the spa town at that time, such as the architect Gabriel Davioud, the actor Coquelin senior and Colonel Lepic.