American Art Collaborative

This model represents a twenty-five-foot fountain commissioned by the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine. Although the mechanical components of the fountain never worked properly, the seal at the top was intended to spout water, which would trickle down over sculptures of local sea birds set among massive wood pilings. The monument became a subject of controversy when the hotel changed hands in 1979 and removed the sculpture from its grounds. Artist Louise Nevelson, a native of the area and an acquaintance of Langlais’s, canceled a reservation at the resort in protest. The work is now in the collection of the Portland Museum of Art.