FONTAINEBLEAU, FRANCE

Gogottes are mineral formations of exceptional natural beauty. Once thought to have been composed from chalk due to their pale colour and powdered texture, they are the natural result of calcium carbonate binding with extremely fine quartz grains. As a result, each delicately sculpted layer is a unique artwork from the mineral-rich waters of Fontainebleau in northern France, with the shapes evoking clouds and tangible representations of dreamlike imagery. Such visually arresting forms are the result of a mineralization process which takes approximately 30 million years.

These sandstone concretions boast an strong reputation spanning centuries, both in France and internationally. As early as the late seventeenth century, gogottes were prized for their unique aesthetic appeal by the highest echelons of French nobility. Louis XIV “the Sun King” of France (r. 1643-1715) was so enthralled by these natural formations that he ordered excavations in and around the region of Fontainebleau, as highly unusual ornaments for his palatial gardens. Indeed, gogottes still adorn L’Encelade, Les Trois Fontaines, and La Salle de Bal at Versailles, and have enchanted visitors for more than three centuries.

With their swirling formations and abstract holes and crevices, gogottes have inspired modern sculptors throughout the twentieth century. As dynamic snapshots of elemental metamorphosis, they were particularly well received by impressionist and surrealist sculptors. Similar forms are evident in the recumbent figures by Henry Moore, while the white marble compositions by Jean Arp (S’accroupissant, 1960-1962) and Louise Bourgeois (Cumul I, 1969) all evoke the arresting and unpredictable formations of gogottes.

In recent years, a large gogotte specimen was gifted to the Natural History Museum in London, to mark the 90th birthday of naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough.