Pan of Rohallion

Details

FREDERICK WILLIAM MACMONNIES (1863-1937)
Pan of Rohallion
stamped 'TO PAN OF ROHALLION ANNO DOMINI MDCCLXL' (along the base)—inscribed 'Frederick MacMonnies/copyright 1894 Paris 1890' and stamped with foundry mark 'E. GRUET/JEUNE/FONDEUR/44 BIS AVENUE DE CHATILLON·PARIS·' (on the base)
bronze with brown patina
30 in. (76.2 cm.) high
Modeled in 1890.

Provenance

Eric Silver Works of Art, Great Neck, New York.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1989.

Literature

The Critic, July 3, 1897, p. 1.
L. Taft, The History of American Sculpture, London, 1902, p. 341.
C.H. Caffin, American Masters of Sculpture, Garden City, New York, 1913, p. 75.
Brooklyn Museum, The American Renaissance, 1876-1917, exhibition catalogue, Brooklyn, New York, 1979, p. 226, no. 248, another example illustrated.
Newark Museum, American Sculpture in the Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey, 1981, p. 413, another example referenced.
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., Carved and Modeled: American Sculpture, 1810-1940, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1982, pp. 64-65, another example illustrated.
G.B. Opitz, ed., Dictionary of American Sculptors: 18th Century to the Present, Poughkeepsie, New York, 1984, p. 575, another example illustrated.
The Parrish Art Museum, Fauns and Fountains: American Garden Statuary, 1890-1930, exhibition catalogue, Southampton, New York, 1985, n.p., no. 17, another example illustrated.
J. Conner, J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893-1939, Austin, Texas, 1989, p. 126.
M. Smart, E.A. Gordon, A Flight with Fame: The Life and Art of Frederick MacMonnies with a Catalogue Raisonné of the Artist's Works, Madison, Connecticut, 1996, pp. 92, 288, no. 22, other examples illustrated.
R. Gabrielan, Images of America, vol. II, Charleston, South Carolina, 1997, p. 51, another example illustrated.
T. Tolles, ed., American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A catalogue of works by artists born before 1865, vol. I, New York, 1999, pp. 428, 431, another example referenced.
T.A. Eaton, ed., From Neo-Classical and Beaux-Arts to Modernism: A Passage in American Sculpture, Riviera Beach, Florida, 2000, pp. 20-21, another example illustrated.
J.P. O'Neill, ed., A Walk Through the American Wing, New York, 2001, p. 6, another example illustrated.
D.B. Dearinger, ed., Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design: 1826-1925, vol. I, New York, 2004, p. 389.
J. Shrock, The Gilded Age, Westport, Connecticut, 2004, p. 258.
R.G. Wilson, Edith Wharton at Home: Life at The Mount, New York, 2012, p. 62, another example illustrated.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Pan of Rohallion was initially conceived as a large-scale fountain figure for the Rumson, New Jersey, estate of Rohallion, owned by Edward Dean Adams. Following the popularity of the design, Adams gave MacMonnies permission to cast reductions of the model, even buying numerous examples himself as gifts for his friends. As summarized by a contemporary reviewer, "'Pan of Rohallion,' illustrates [MacMonnies'] tendency to fasten on the beauty of a momentary pose. Although the boy is standing, and piping away unconscious of the effort he is making to maintain his balance, every muscle is adjusted to keep his position on the globular support, and we are made to feel the rhythmical movement that must accompany the strain. It is a fleeting harmony made permanent" (The Critic, July 3, 1897, p. 1.). Other casts of Pan of Rohallion are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, among others.

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