Boy with Goose, Bronze sculpture in Marshall Park, Milwaukee, US
Boy with Goose is a bronze sculpture in an urban park depicting a naked child holding a goose in his lap while water flows from the bird's beak. The work rests on a tiered base within a planter and combines the figure of a child with a functioning water feature.
A local resident commissioned the work in 1925, and Italian artist Girolamo Piccoli completed it in 1927 for public display in a park. The bronze sculpture came about during a period when artists began using nature and childhood as central themes for public artworks.
The sculpture presents a child in a quiet moment with an animal, reflecting how people value connections to nature even in urban spaces. This kind of tender scene was typical of public artworks that centered on childhood and family life.
The work sits in a publicly accessible park and can be viewed freely from outside without needing to enter a ticketed space. As an outdoor piece, it appears different depending on the weather and time of day.
The boy was modeled by Dominic Joseph Balestrieri, a neighborhood child who later became a firefighter in the city. This connection between a young artist's model and a later career in emergency service is woven into the local story of the artwork.
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