Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00000286The Sleeping Faun
About the Artwork
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.
Inscriptions
Signed and inscribed on base: "H HOSMER Fecit -- Romae"; titled on base: "THE SLEEPING FAUN"
Provenance
1870s: Prince of Wales Jacob Wakefield Kendal Museum, Kendal, Cumbria, England 1977: Sotheby's, London, sale, March 16, 1977 Christopher Forbes, New York [Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York]
Exhibition history
Maestá di Roma, da Napoleon all'Unita d'Italia: Universale ed Eterna. Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, Italy (organizer) (March 5-June 29, 2003).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Harriet Goodhue Hosmer (American, 1830–1908)
- Date
- modeled 1864, carved c. 1870
- Medium
- marble
- Dimensions
- Overall: 127 cm (50 in.)
- Type
- Sculpture
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Department
- American Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Accession no.
- 1997.15
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Open-access museum record · AT-00000286
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