Source of the Noé Spring

In front of the valve works building at the spring of Noé stands a male figure wearing a top hat -- perhaps a companion of Collardʼs included to provide a sense of scale. Southeast of Fontainebleau, the Noé is one of the four major sources that feed into the Aqueduc de la Vanne, designed by Eugène Belgrand in 1866 to fulfill Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmannʼs plan to bring ample fresh water to Paris as part of Napoleon IIIʼs public works program.