As summer comes to a close and days grow shorter once again we wanted to use this post to tell you about the Four Seasons Statues of New Orleans. The city boasts hundreds of statues, many of them quite famous and some infamous. However, there are four that may be the most unnoticed statues in the city and the most peculiar, seeing we are not the least bit familiar with the traditional seasons of the year.
Hidden in plain site, the Four Seasons Statues reside in the four corners of Jackson Square. They were erected between 1850 and 1852 and are the four oldest statues still standing in New Orleans. As their name implies, each statue represents a season, not only of the calendar but of our human life cycle.
The Seasons of Life
The first marble statue represents Spring and is symbolized by a young girl holding flowers of the season. The Summer statue is a young man leaning against a tree with his legs crossed having just read the book in his hand as many like to do in the long hours of summer. He even has a snack of grapes at his side. Autumn is represented by a native American woman with a sickle perhaps getting ready to reap the harvest of fall. And finally the statue representing Winter is an old bearded man in a cloak contemplating the long years of his life.
If you haven’t seen the statues, you are not alone. The next time you are in the Square, take a moment to search them out, ponder their meaning and perhaps question what they are even doing here.
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Thank you for the nice picture of the four season statue in Jackon square in new orleans.
do you know the name of the person who put the statue of the four seasons in jackon square
Thank You JoAnne
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Hi JoAnne, Thank you for your interest in our blog Four Seasons Statues. There is not much information to be found about the statues, but here is what we know… In the early part of 1851, work was underway to transform the Place d’Armes into Jackson Square… One of the members of the Special Committee on Improvements, D. Lanata, offered the (City) Council four marble statues representing the seasons. “These,” he said, “were a bargain at $100.00 each.” The Council accepted his offer and Newton Richards, dealer in stone, was employed to furnish the marble bases and erect the statues. Total cost, statues and bases, $1,030.00. From JACKSON SQUARE THROUGH THE YEARS, Leonard V. Huber (1982) Best, The Savvy Native