Cleveland Museum of Art

Bacchanale

Malvina Hoffman

Date

1917

Medium

bronze, copper, brass

Culture

America

Department

American Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

While visiting London, sculptor Malvina Hoffman was electrified by a dance performance featuring Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin, two highly acclaimed Russian ballet stars. Together the dancers presented a bacchanale, a work inspired by the legendary followers of Bacchus, the ancient Roman god of wine. In this uninhibited and erotically charged piece, both dancers cavorted on stage, their movements accented by grasped veils of gauze. Hoffman’s Bacchanale is her vibrant interpretation of the performance, capturing a fleeting moment in permanent form. A second version of this life-size sculpture was installed in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, where it was destroyed during the Second World War.

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