Cleveland Museum of Art

The Sleeping Faun

Date

modeled 1864, carved c. 1870

Medium

marble

Culture

America

Department

American Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Hosmer is the best known female member of a large group of American artists working in Italy during the mid-1800s. The Sleeping Faun , a depiction of a pointed-eared woodland spirit, demonstrates her mastery of the neoclassical style, which was inspired by the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Hosmer’s playful sense of humor infuses the composition: a half-human, half-goat satyr mischievously ties the unwitting faun’s animal skin garment to a tree stump. Hosmer said, "I honor every woman who has strength enough to step out of the beaten path. . . ."

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