Baccante Carrying Baby Baccus

After Jean-Joseph Foucou (French, 1739-1815)
Italian, ca. 1853
H. 60”
Original location: South west side mansion in front of the Winter Parlor
Location of original statue: Lobby of Trout Theater

A Bacchante is an attendant to Bacchus, the god of wine. Both Bacchante and Bacchus was often a theme in garden statues.

In the nineteenth century and early twentieth century this piece was always attributed to Claude Michel Clodion (French, 1738-1814) Clodion works were very popular in the mid-1800s and were often reproduced.

Today’s scholarship attributes the work to Jean-Joseph Foucou, a contemporary of Clodion and worked in the same style. Foucou was a student at the École de peinture et de sculpture of Marseille. He went to Paris and entered the workshop of Jean-Jacques Caffieri. In 1769 he won the Prix de Rome in sculpture. He return to Paris was accepted at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1777, with full membership in 1785. He was a regular contributor to the Paris Salons from 1779 to 1812.