The Fontaine des Innocents

Stories of a Parisian Masterpiece

For the first time, the Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris dedicates a temporary exhibition to a Parisian monument, inviting its visitors to discover or rediscover it in all its many facets.

A masterpiece of the French Renaissance adorned with reliefs by the sculptor Jean Goujon, the Fontaine des Innocents shaped the centre of Paris in the heart of Les Halles district. The restoration of the fountain, which began in July 2023 and will be completed in June 2024, is an exceptional opportunity to discover in the best possible conditions the five reliefs of the nymphs sculpted by Jean Goujon, which were removed from the monument.

Through a selection of around 150 works of varied types and digital devices, the exhibition presents the successive transformations that have affected the edifice, in the heart of the constantly changing neighbourhood of Les Halles. The fountain, deeply rooted in the Parisian imagination, then became a popular icon. The exhibition also explores the figure of Jean Goujon, a major artist of the French Renaissance, yet today little known to the public

The aim is to evoke the artistic career of the sculptor, its historical reality and its mythical aspect, by highlighting his Parisian creations, more particularly those of the Louvre and Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois. His influence in art history is presented through examples found in various artistic trends. If several generations of sculptors would be nourished by the art of Jean Goujon, such as David d’Angers, Maillol, and Carpeaux, a filiation also becomes apparent with the painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, who borrowed the composition of one of the nymphs from the fountain in La Source, one of his masterpieces completed in 1856. A both scholarly and popular icon, this work became in its turn a source of inspiration for many artists. The model imagined by Goujon for the Fontaine des Innocents thus continues along its path, borrowed and reinvented, like an eternal fountain of youth.

The exhibition invites the visitors to explore a restoration behind the scenes through that of the Fontaine des Innocents and its successive metamorphoses, and highlights the posterity of this iconic Parisian monument in popular culture and in art.

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