Collect: American Art Featuring Works from the Estate of Sydney F. Martin

Note

Frederick William MacMonnies became known for his mastery of the French Beaux-Arts style which flourished in American sculpture in the late 1800s. He enjoyed a wildly successful career in both America and France. Among his most well-known works is Bacchante and Infant Faun, a work that encapsulates the taste of the era. A nude woman exuberantly revels with grapes in one hand and an infant in the other. The original 84 inch tall cast was given to architect Charles Follen McKim (1847-1909) who planned to install it in the courtyard of the Boston Public Library, a plan that was met with outrage and led to one of the great art scandals of the decade. The citizens of Boston were upset by the representation of debauchery and drunkenness and felt the statue posed a moral issue. The controversy and popularity of the work led MacMonnies to produce reduced size versions of the work, as seen here.