In the masterpiece that is Central Park, one feature has become a symbol of the park and the city itself: Bethesda Fountain.
Unveiled in 1873, the fountain—which commemorates the opening of the Croton Aqueduct 31 years earlier—graces the lower level of Bethesda Terrace in the heart of the park at the end of the Mall.
The fountain’s base and basins are lovely, especially with lily pads floating around in the tranquil water. But it’s the bronze sculpture in the center that commands attention.
Called the Angel of the Waters, it was the only sculpture commissioned during the building of the park by Central Park’s co-designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, according to NYC Parks.
The Angel of the Waters has been a recognizable icon for 150 years. But few New Yorkers know the story of Emma Stebbins, the woman who designed it—and the unconventional life she led as an artist who sidestepped the rigid roles women were largely confined to in 19th century Gotham.
Her early years were not radically different than those of other artistically gifted, well-to-do girls. Born into a comfortable and cultured New York City family in 1815, Stebbins was encouraged to study drawing and painting, wrote Jennifer Harlan in a 2019 New York Times “Overlooked No More” article. She went on to exhibit her work at the National Academy of Design.
“By her twenties, she was a diligent and dedicated worker whose skill and perseverance were remarked upon by contemporaries,” according to the History of American Women blog.
Her life over the next decades in New York City centered on her oils and watercolors. “The wealth and clout of her family allowed her to devote her life to a career of art, which was not often the case for women of lesser means,” stated the Smithsonian’s Unbound blog in 2020.
Stebbins’ world changed in 1857, when she traveled to Rome and switched her focus to sculpture. There she met an American sculptor named Harriet Hosmer, who had been living in Rome for five years with a band of expatriate artists, actors, and other creatives.
With this group, Stebbins began a new career in Europe—as well as a long love affair with the celebrated American Shakespearean actress Charlotte Cushman (above, with Stebbins in an 1850s portrait). “Stebbins was welcomed into this community of women and almost immediately began a romantic relationship with Cushman that would last for the rest of their lifetimes,” stated Unbound.
Stebbins and Cushman were so devoted to each other, they exchanged vows. “Cushman described herself as married to Stebbins, telling a friend in an 1858 letter that she wore ‘the badge upon the finger of my left hand,’” the Times stated.
While Stebbins and Cushman were living in Rome, Stebbins racked up sculpture commissions, mostly from the United States. Meanwhile, the construction of Central Park was underway. Stebbins’ brother Henry, chairman of a park architectural committee, pressured committee members to give his sister the project of creating the fountain called for in Olmsted and Vaux’s park plans.
Stebbins’ design was approved by the committee in 1862, per the New York Times. Executed in Rome and cast in Munich, Angel of the Waters was unveiled 11 years later in Central Park in front of a springtime audience of thousands, with the Central Park Band playing as the fountain spray (fed by Croton water) dazzled the crowd.
“At the dedication ceremony for the Fountain in 1873, Stebbins revealed that the sculpture’s angel was inspired by a Bible passage in the Gospel of John that describes an angel blessing the Pool of Bethesda and giving it healing powers,” wrote the Central Park Conservancy.
Clean Croton water “was ‘healing’ to New Yorkers, who had suffered through numerous devastating disease outbreaks because of contaminated drinking water,” continued the Conservancy. “The iconography of Stebbins’ sculpture furthers this connection, with the lily in the angel’s hand symbolizing the purity of the water and the four cherubs surrounding the pedestal representing peace, health, purity, and temperance.”
The fountain received mixed reviews. The New York Daily Herald pronounced it “one of the most exquisite ornaments of the park” in a June 1, 1873 edition of the paper, a day after the unveiling. The same day, the New York Times described it as a “feebly-pretty idealess thing of bronze.”
Stebbins may have had other concerns to deal with. In 1869, Cushman had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The couple returned to America in 1870, according to the New York Times piece. By the time Lady of the Waters was unveiled in 1873, Stebbins had paused her art career to care for Cushman, who ultimately died in 1876 of pneumonia. (Stebbins, unsurprisingly, was not in Cushman’s obituary, but Cushman did remember her in her will.)
With Cushman gone, Stebbins (above, in 1875) devoted herself to writing and publishing a biography of her partner. In increasingly poor health, she passed away in 1882 of a respiratory condition called “phthisis,” or pulmonary tuberculosis.
The Angel of the Waters lives on, a sublime symbol of the beauty of Central Park. And according to the Central Park Conservatory, there’s some speculation that Cushman was the basis for the figure of Stebbins’ angel.
[Third image: LOC; fourth image: Smithsonian Institute; fifth image: NYPL; sixth image: MCNY X2011.34.1484; seventh image: Wikipedia]