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The Sleeping Faun
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineThe Sleeping Faun, modeled 1864, carved c. 1870. Harriet Goodhue Hosmer (American, 1830–1908). Marble; overall: 127 cm (50 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1997.15
