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.