his column was one of the components of the monumental stoneware fountain erected on the Cours la Reine by the Sèvres Manufactory for the 1900 Universal Exhibition. With this massive construction, the manufactory intended to showcase its expertise and impress visitors.

Three nymphs or "ondines"—deities or spirits of the Seine—form a ring around the column. Their back-to-back positioning and the fluidity of the drapery evoke Germain Pilon’s The Three Graces, a monument housed in the Louvre Museum, of which Boucher owned a drawing in his personal collection. The treatment of the stoneware in gradients of blue and green, combined with the flowing movement of the drapery, evokes the streaming water of the river.