Frederick W. MacMonnies Archive

This casting is the rare reduction, of the more common larger scale 30″ high “Bacchante and Infant Faun”, 1893 by MacMonnies.  this smaller size, 16 inches in height, was executed in a very limited edition at the H. Rouard Foundry in Paris, likely prior to 1900.  this is a fine sand cast with the artists signature inscribed in the original wax model.  the patina is the original beautiful dark brown color.

The subject model of the “Bacchante and Infant Faun” has an interesting story behind it in the lore of New York and Boston art history.  the large outdoor model of this subject, 83 inches, was offered to theBoston Public Library in 1896 by the architect Charles F. McKim, for placement in the Library’s garden court.  After a great storm of public protest stirred up by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union against its “drunken indecency”, the gift was rejected by the Library.  McKim then presented the bronze to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is on display in the Charles Engelhard Court, in the American Art Wing.