The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Marble sculpture of a faun, a human presenting woodland spirit, dozing on a chair-shaped tree stump. The faun's left arm hangs over the back of the stump, their left ankle crossed over the right knee and right hand resting on their left calf. Their head tilts back into their left shoulder, mouth slightly open. A half-goat satyr seated behind the faun ties the animal skin cloth draped over the faun's waist to the tree stump.

The Sleeping Faun

modeled 1864, carved c. 1870
sculptor

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer

(American, 1830–1908)
America
marble
Overall: 127 cm (50 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1997.15
Location: 206 American Landscape

Did You Know?

Hosmer said, "I honor every woman who has strength enough to step out of the beaten path. . . ."

Description

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.
  • 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]
  • Ausherman, Maria, Masters of Shape: The Lives and Art of American Women Sculptors. (Novato, CA: Goff Books, 2022). Mentioned and reproduced p. 65.
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major Neoclassical Marble, Rare Korean Sculpture, Other Recent CMA Acquisitions Now on View,” April 16, 1997, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Hawley, Henry H. "Hosmer's Marble Faun." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 37, no. 10 (December 1997): 4-6. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 4-6 archive.org
    Maestá di Roma: Universale ed Eterna,Capitale delle Arte. Electa: Rome, 2003. Fig. XII.10, p. 275.
    Whiteley, Jon and Linda Whiteley. "Majesty of Rome." The Burlington Magazine 1205 (Aug. 2003), fig. 83, p. 610, repr. p. 610. 610
    Adams, Henry. What's American about American Art? A Gallery Tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. pg. 84-86. 84-86
    Cole, Mark. "New Spaces in the Cleveland Museum of Art," American Art 24, no. 2 (Summer 2010).illus. p. 16. 16
    Cole, Mark. "The Sleeping Faun." In Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by David Franklin and C. Griffith Mann. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art; London: Scala, 2012. p. 264; illus. p. 265. 264, illus. 265
    Dabakis, Melissa. A Sisterhood of Sculptors: American Artists in Nineteenth-Century Rome. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2014. p. 237, note 76. 237
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Reproduced: P. 20
  • Maestá di Roma, da Napoleon all'Unita d'Italia: Universale ed Eterna. Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, Italy (organizer) (March 5-June 29, 2003).
    Scudiere del Quirinale (3/5/2003 - 6/29/2003): "Maestá di Roma, da Napoleon all'Unita d'Italia: Il Mito Classico e Christiano", figure XII.10, p. 275.
    The Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 1989-1996.
  • {{cite web|title=The Sleeping Faun|url=false|author=Harriet Goodhue Hosmer|year=modeled 1864, carved c. 1870|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1997.15