One of the most famous sculpture "To the river" (or "To the water, Porthos!") by important French sculptor Emmanuel Fontaine (Abbeville 1856 - Commercy 1935).  Active in the Montparnasse district, Emmanuel Fontaine studied under François Jouffroy, Alexandre Falguière, Antonin Mercié, and Louis Noël at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He exhibited medallions and busts at the Paris Salon from 1877 to 1882. His sculptures received an honorable mention in 1887, a third-class medal in 1893 and Gold medal in 1900 for the sculpture *À l'eau, Porthos!*), a second-class medal in 1896,  and a first-class medal in 1904. He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1910 and was awarded a medal hors concours (outside the competition) in 1922.

The bronze statue of his Monument to Jacques Boucher de Perthes, erected in the Place du Pilori in Abbeville in 1907 and inaugurated on June 7, 1908, was melted down by the German occupiers during the Second World War.

Prisca Hazebrouck highlights the recumbent effigy of lovers, a bronze tomb located in the Chapelle cemetery in Abbeville (“the most striking monument in the cemetery”), depicting “lovers holding hands,” side by side, to whom Emmanuel Fontaine drew expressive and serene features: “A barely sketched smile plays on the lips of the young woman who turns her head slightly towards her husband.” While it is established that the plot was purchased in 1866 by Adolphe Masse of Abbeville, the complete absence of any mention of burial for this location, and the lack of any inscription on the tomb, make it a monument where beauty is combined with mystery. 

Emmanuel Fontaine designed war memorials for the Somme department after the First World War. He died on September 21, 1935, and is buried in the cemetery of La Chapelle d'Abbeville.

Works by Fontaine are different museums in France including in Museum Orsay, Paris; Museum in San José, Braxilia, Santa Clara University, Saisset Museum: identical as our bronze sculpture  Into the Water, Porthos!, bronze; identical but  large marble sculpture is in jardin du Luxembourg , Paris.

Literature:  Pierre Kjellberg, Les bronzes du xix^e siècle : dictionnaire des sculpteurs, Paris, Éditions de l'Amateur, 2005; Emnuel Bénézit Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, Gründ, 1999.

Inscription: signed on the side of the base; titled on the front of the base in French; stamp in French from the World's Exhibition in Paris at 1900 with mark "Gold medaille“.

Technique: bronze, brown patina.

Mesurements: high 39 cm, width 20 cm, depth 15 cm. 

Condition: very good.