Lorado Taft

Lorado Taft shaped American public sculpture through monumental fountains and monuments that marked cities across the Midwest. Born in Illinois in 1860, he trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Gabriel Thomas and Augustin Dumont, then returned to Chicago to teach and create. His Fountain of Time, unveiled in 1922 at the Midway Plaisance, became his signature work—a cloaked figure of time watching humanity pass, based on Austin Dobson's meditation on transience.