Frederick MacMonnies

American (1863–1937)

Young Faun and Heron

cast in 1894

Bronze

Gift of David S. Hendrick III in memory of Donald Steele Hendrick

1986.39

This bronze was commissioned by architect Stanford White for the garden of Naumkeag, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the house White was designing for Joseph Hodges Choate. A mythological vignette that always intrigued visitors to Choate’s garden, the improbable composition features a laughing boy effortlessly subduing a thrashing, oversized heron. In 1894, MacMonnies copyrighted several of his works, including Young Faun and Heron, and contracted foundries to cast replicas in reduced sizes making the sculpture available to a wider audience.

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