The Goose Girl (1914)

Model for Rockefeller Fountain: The Goose Girl [sculpture] / (photographer unknown).
Archives of American Art, American Sculpture Photograph Study Collection
Used with Permission.

After Rebeck graduated from the Cleveland School of Art in 1912, he went to study in New York for two years:

working around the studios until ability told and he was taken as protégé by Carl Bitter.  While working for this great sculptor, who was a grilling master, Rebeck gained invaluable instruction.  Here he aided on a fountain called “The Goose Girl,” for John D. Rockefeller’s residence at Pocantico Hills, New York, of which a replica is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York City.  To assist him in this work Mr. Bitter sent Rebeck out on numerous excursions to study the goose, always to model in upon his return, until finally the anatomy was pronounced correct. (Cleveland Topics)

The fountain can still be seen at Pocantico Hills.

Karl Bitter was one of the most prolific and highly regarded sculptors at the turn of the century.  He was a founding member of the National Sculpture Society as well as being head of sculpture at both the 1904 St. Louis Exposition and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.  The statues of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton outside the Cuyahoga County Courthouse were sculpted by Bitter.

REFERENCES:

“Cleveland’s Greatest Sculptor Resumes Studio,” Cleveland Topics, July 5, 1919.

Dennis, James M.  Karl Bitter: Architectural Sculptor 1867-1915.  Madison:  The University of Wisconsin Press, 1967.