Under the upper basin
are four piping Pans, not notable individually, but adding to the
decorative effect. The wall around the lower pool carries a playful
frieze of animals in low relief.
The Pioneer is the title of the equestrian statue at the south end of
the court, on the Avenue of Palms. The man is typically the Western
pioneer, as every resident of the Pacific Coast has known him-a
patriarchal figure who foreran civilization here in the West of America
as he has in all other new lands. Head up, axe and gun in hand, looking
straight forward, he is a fine visualization of the "Forty-niner." He
is, too, an interesting racial contrast to the Indian of "The End of the
Trail." One wonders, however, about the horse, with the elaborate
trappings that clearly belong to another era-to the days of Spanish
conquest, perhaps. Certainly horse and rider do not seem to be conceived
in the same spirit. The group lacks, too, that vital intensity of
feeling and that emotional strength which distinguish "The End of the
Trail," the companion-statue in the Court of Palms. The "Pioneer" is by
Solon Borglum.
The minor sculpture here consists of A. Stirling Calder's attractive
"Flower Girl," repeated in the niches along the loggia; dignified Lions,
by Albert Laessle, flanking the three portals; and again Carl Gruppe's
"The Fairy," atop the Italian Towers.
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