“Watching the Ferry” by Louis Quaintance (based on a 1947 lithograph by John Bloom) 1992

Mississippi River front
Davenport, Iowa

"Watching the Ferry" overlooks the Mississippi River. This life-sized bronze sculpture is located near the gazebo on the Iowa-American Water Company riverfront property, just east of the Davenport Sailing Club.

It is based on the 1947 lithograph by Quad Cities artist John Bloom. Bloom was at the LeClaire Park sketching when he saw two boys watching the W .J. Quinlan ferry. The lithograph and the sculpture differ in that one of the boys in the sculpture is pointing towards the river, while neither boy is pointing in the lithograph.

The sculptor, Louis Quaintance, used his twelve and fourteen years old nephews as models. The sculpture was created by modeling clay onto a metal skeletal structure. A mold was made and each piece was cast in bronze. According to John Bloom, the sculpture was cast in six or eight pieces. The bench the boys sit on was also cast.

Unveiled on September 26 in 1992, the sculpture was funded largely through the efforts of the Riverssance Arts Festival. The Riverssance Arts Festival generated more than $32,000 to help pay for the sculpture, mostly through the sale of prints and donations. Most donations came from private sources, along with a matching grant from the Davenport Levee Commission and Friends of Art of the Davenport Museum of Art. Major supporters of the sculpture included the Kartridg Pak Company which provided the studio space where the sculpture was made; the Quad-City Times, Tri-City Electric, Dick Downey and Associates, Mississippi Fine Arts and John Bald Wildlife.

Louis Quaintance, a Rock Island native, heads the sculpture department at the University of California in Berkeley. John Bloom maintains a studio in Davenport. Early in his career, Bloom worked with Grant Wood as a mural painter. His wife, Isabel, is also a successful artist.

link to drawing by Bruce Walters