Bacchanale (1917): Art, History and Details

Bacchanale (1917) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Malvina Hoffman (American, 1887–1966).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

While visiting London, sculptor Malvina Hoffman was electrified by a dance performance featuring Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Mordkin, two highly acclaimed Russian ballet stars. Together the dancers presented a bacchanale, a work inspired by the legendary followers of Bacchus, the ancient Roman god of wine. In this uninhibited and erotically charged piece, both dancers cavorted on stage, their movements accented by grasped veils of gauze. Hoffman’s Bacchanale is her vibrant interpretation of the performance, capturing a fleeting moment in permanent form.

Object facts

• Title: Bacchanale
• Date: 1917
• Creator attribution: Malvina Hoffman (American, 1887–1966)
• Culture: America
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze, copper, brass
• Dimensions: without base: 172.7 x 137.2 cm (68 x 54 in.)
• Collection: American - Sculpture
• Department: American Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1943.384

A detail from the museum

A second version of this life-size sculpture was installed in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, where it was destroyed during the Second World War.

Collection credit

In memory of Julia K. Dalton by her nephews, George S. Kendrick and Harry D. Kendrick

Further reading listed by the museum

• Solender, Katherine. The American Way in Sculpture, 1890-1930. Cleveland, OH: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986.
• Ausherman, Maria, Masters of Shape: The Lives and Art of American Women Sculptors. (Novato, CA: Goff Books, 2022).
• "New Bronzes in the Garden Court." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 8 (1917): 147-48.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.