Sculptor - Frederick MacMonnies
Title - Bacchante and Infant Faun
Terracotta
Circa 1896
22" height
(56 cm)
One of MacMonnies' most famous sculptures is the Bacchante with Infant Faun. It was cast in several different sizes by both French and American foundries and it was quite controversial when it was first made in the late 19th century. The image of a dancing nude was shocking to many and it was censored and condemned by critics.
An 83" size model of this sculpture by Frederick MacMonnies was cast by the Thiebault Freres foundry and offered as a gift to the Boston Public Library by the architect Charles Follen McKim in 1896. The sculpture was to be placed in the garden court of the library. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union caused such a public outcry citing its "drunken indecency" that the gift was refused by the library. McKim gave the statue to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York where it resides today. The spectacle that was made regarding this gift gave MacMonnies and this model a great deal of notoriety in the United States. A model of Bacchante and Infant Faun is in the permanent collections of most of the museums in the United States and France.
Because the Bacchante with Infant faun was so popular, it was also cast in other materials besides bronze. The bronzes were done in several sizes and the larger casts are rare and sell into the high 5 figures. The sculpture we offer here was done of terra cotta with a bronze patina applied to it so it looks just like a bronze. These terra cotta Bacchante sculptures are fragile and not many have survived. Our Bacchante is signed on the side of the base and was retailed through the Frank Herschede Company Jewelers and Silversmiths of Cincinnati Ohio, which was a prominent store in the early 1900s.
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