The fountain of the Observatory in the garden Marco Polo is often called the fountain of the four cardinal directions or just Carpo – named sculptor. Over the fountain worked four authors, but it was Jean-Baptiste carpeaux created figures of naked women, rotating over the heads of the globe and representing Europe, Asia, Africa and America.

The fountain, located on a tree-lined axis between the Luxembourg Palace and the Paris Observatory, was designed in 1866 as part of the creation of the Luxembourg Avenue (now Avenue Observator). This highway was one of the largest projects of Baron Haussmann's reconstruction of Paris. The project was administered by Gabrielle Davy responsible for the design of fountains, squares, lights, gates and other architectural details, and he chose to implement the ideas of Jean-Baptiste carpeaux.

Karpo was already infamous for his sculptural group "the Dance" on the facade of the Paris Opera was shown to the public, accustomed to the tranquility of Neoclassicism, too cheerful, almost unbridled. However, this is my idea – whirling figures about the axis Karpo had developed while working on the fountain of the Observatory. First, he fashioned a stationary model, but realized that they do not have enough traffic. The next option it was made by four female figures whirl themselves and circling over the heads of the celestial sphere covered by the tape with the signs of the zodiac. The signs of the zodiac and a sphere with globe inside created student Karpo Eugene Legrain, magnificent sea horses, as if jumping out of the pool around the fountain, fish, and sea turtles – the sculptor Emmanuel on Frame, and garlands of shells and aquatic plants that adorn the pool, Louis Willamina.

Work on the fountain was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian war and the uprising of the Paris commune, which was renewed in 1872 and completed in 1874. Karpo was seriously ill and watched from afar as set up the statues. He died the next year.

The first reaction to the fountain was sharply hostile. One critic wrote terrible for the sculptor's line: "What an aberration of the spirit, eyes and hands need to have to compose such a group of wild, vulgar and wrinkled dancers! "Well, if you look closely, the figures for women and really at least not too feminine, especially in America. Proportionate and even came out fine just Europe. But overall, the fountain looks impressive: fish and turtles produce jets of water, the horses break out, and on a hot day, so nice that any oddities in the female figures, no one notices.