The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Young Satyress Running with an Owl's Nest and Young Satyr Running with an Owl (pair of statuettes)

Young Satyress Running with an Owl's Nest and Young Satyr Running with an Owl (pair of statuettes)

1770s
(French, 1738–1814)
France, 18th century
terracotta
Overall: 32.1 x 14.8 x 18.1 cm (12 5/8 x 5 13/16 x 7 1/8 in.); with base: 45.1 cm (17 3/4 in.)
The Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection 1944.129
Location: not on view

Description

These works by the French sculptor Claude Michel, called Clodion, show a pair of young satyrs. Clodion was fond of depicting characters from classical antiquity in his work, and the subject of child or baby satyrs in Bacchanalian celebrations appears often in the work of Rococo artists. The female satyr wraps a plump arm around a nest filled with baby birds, while her male counterpart holds an owl. Balancing on one foot, the two flee the scene of their theft.
  • Private collection, France
    Arnold Seligman and Rey and Co., Paris, France
    -1929
    French and Co., New York, New York, sold to Mrs. Francis F. Prentiss
    1929-1944
    Elisabeth Severance Prentiss [Mrs. Francis Fleury Prentiss] (1865–1944), Cleveland Heights, Ohio), upon her death, held in trust by the estate.
    1944
    Estate of Elizabeth Severance Prentiss, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1944-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Catalogue of the Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection : Bequest of Elisabeth Severance Prentiss, 1944. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1944. Reproduced: p. [54], Plate XXIV, cat. no. 36; p. [57], Plate XXV, cat. no. 37; Mentioned: p. 50, 55, cat. no. 36, 37 archive.org
    Milliken, William M. “French Furniture and Sculpture.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 31, no. 6 (1944). pp. 98, 101 www.jstor.org
    Ditner, David Charles. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century European Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. 1986. pp. 209-216, fig. 27a
    Clodion, and Anne L. Poulet. Clodion, 1738-1814: Musée du Louvre, Paris, 17 mars-29 juin 1992. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1992. pp. 135-37, cat. no. 17
    Scott, Barbara, "Clodion as a Monumental Sculptor," Apollo, V. CXXII, no. 364 (June 1992). p. 395.
    Scherf, Guilhem. Clodion et la sculpture française de la fin du XVIIIe siècle: actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre par le service culturel les 20 et 21 mars 1992. Paris: La Documentation française, 1993. pp. 516-517, fig. nos. 4,5,6,7
    "1992 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 6 (1993): 215-95. Mentioned: p. 247 www.jstor.org
  • Clodion. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (March 17-June 29, 1992).
    Clodion. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (March 17-June 29, 1992).
  • {{cite web|title=Young Satyress Running with an Owl's Nest and Young Satyr Running with an Owl (pair of statuettes)|url=false|author=Clodion|year=1770s|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1944.129