Erik Gustav Göthe (1779-1838) was born in Stockholm, the son of a stonemason, and studied at the Stockholm Academy under Sergel and Desprez. Like his master Sergel, Göthe moved to Paris to continue his studies in 1803, and enroled in the École des beaux-arts under the patronage of the painter Regnault. In 1804 he travelled to Rome where he joined Canova's studio and where he remained until 1810. He debuted in Rome with his colossal figure of Meleager in 1806, shown throwing a javelin, and in 1808 executed his marble Seated Bacchus, now in the Stockholm National Museum. He left for Stockholm in 1810, having been appointed professor of the Academy of Stockholm. He moved to Russia in 1822, where he worked for the court of St Petersburg. He remained one year, executing his Bacchante and his Venus and Cupid, respectively 1822 and 1823, and received a private commission for a seated figure of Catherine II. He also modelled a portrait bust of the St Petersburg Academy director J.P. Martass, under whose recommendation he was made an honorary member of the St Petersburg Academy in 1823. Göthe's work in Stockholm consisted primarily of monuments and portraits of Swedish royalty, aristocracy and contemporary celebrities, among which the bust of King Oskar I in marble in 1819 for the Stockholm Castle, the Count and Countess Trolle-Wachmeister, the Princess Joséphine in 1834. Much of his work is conserved in the museums of Göteborg, Oslo and Stockholm.
Göthe's sensuous classicism recalls the style of his masters, in particular Canova with regard to the ideal figures, and Sergel with regard to his monuments and busts. The present rare bronze cast of his 1808 marble Bacchus appears to have been cast shortly after the completion of the marble in Rome, and another version is in Rosenburg Castle. The delicate beauty of the garlanded head and the graceful langour of the figure echoes his marble reclining Bacchante, and likewise his group of Venus and Cupid shares the soft classicism visible in the present bronze. Inspired compositionally by the Antique bronze Seated Mercury in Naples, and stylistically by the romantic sensuousness of some of Canova's mythological figures, Göthe has created a lyrical image of the god of wine and fertility. The beautiful youth is shown slightly inebriated, his right hand supporting his slack body, his gaze intent on the cup of wine, his nudity vulnerably appealing. The cast is finely chased, despite the large scale, and the detailing and realism is exceptional, in particular the lion pelt, the god's face and hair, his tapering fingers and delicate wine cup. It is likely that such a fine and large replica of the marble was commissioned, probably by a patron who had admired the marble in Rome. The inscription on the cast suggests the casting was carried out by a Roman founder, and the masterly translation into bronze has added a lustre and chiaroscuro richness to this important Neo-Classical creation by one of Sweden's foremost late 18th and early 19th century artists.