Havis Amanda

The bronze figure of a woman rises from a fountain basin, standing on a bed of seaweed with four sea lions spitting water at her feet. Sculptor Ville Vallgren modeled her in Paris in nineteen oh six, hoping to bring a touch of French elegance to Helsinki. When the statue arrived at the harbor, local women protested. They found her posture too suggestive and her appearance too French, even suggesting she looked like a woman of the streets.