An idealized, broad-shouldered woman with long, flowing hair and a crown of cones, she is depicted as stepping down from a tree stump while pouring water from a hydria.

[4] The statue was originally placed opposite a representation of "Father Rhine" on the 17 metres (56 ft) high Gothic Revival portal on the German side of the railway bridge across the Rhine between Kehl and Strasbourg, France, inaugurated in April 1861.

On the French side, an equivalent pair of statues depicted Père Rhin and Mère Ill.

[1] With the destruction of the bridge on 22 July 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, the statues fell into the Rhine.

They were replaced by new versions on the new bridge, which was built in 1874 and completely destroyed during World War II.