FREDERICK WILLIAM MACMONNIES (1863-1937)

Details

FREDERICK WILLIAM MACMONNIES (1863-1937)

'Bacchante and Infant Faun', A Bronze Group

inscribed 'F. MacMonnies 1894' and impressed with the Gruet foundry seal
34in. (86.4cm.) high, greenish brown patina

Literature

A.T.E. Gardner, American Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Greenwich, CT, 1965, pp. 81-82, fig. 97.19
J. Seidel and K. Greenthal, The Sublime and the Beautiful: Images of Women in American Sculpture, 1840-1930, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, 1979, p. 26, fig. 19
W. Craven, Sculpture In America, New York, New York, 1984 ed., pp. 423-424, fig. 12.3

Lot Essay

One of MacMonnies' most critically acclaimed and controversial models, Bacchante and Infant Faun was conceived in 1896 as a life-size bronze to be placed in the courtyard of Charles McKim's recently completed Boston Public Library building. Reductions in various sizes were cast by both French and American foundries.