Frederick Arthur Bridgman

Sale: American Art Association, New York, The Works of F. A. Bridgman, March 14, 1899, lot 72
William Randolph Hearst (offered, his sale, Gimbel Brothers, New York, March 25, 1941, lot 964-1)
International Studio Art Division, The Hearst Corporation, New York
Collection of Ethel Siegel, Palm Beach (acquired from the above in 1966)

Possibly, London, The Royal Academy, 1897, no. 133
New York, Boussod & Valadon, New Paintings by F.A. Bridgman,  January 1899
New York, American Art Association, The Works of F. A. Bridgman, March 1899, no. 3

André Michel, "The Royal Academy," The Athaneum, May 15, 1897, pp. 655-6
Charles H. Chaffin, "New Paintings by Fred Bridgman," Harper's Weekly, vol. 43, no. 2194, Jan 7, 1899, p. 8
"Exhibitions and Other Events in a Week of Some Importance," The New York Times, January 21, 1899
"Pictures by Bridgman and Dewey," New York Times, March 9, 1899

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This large and exciting work is unlined and stretched on a very ineffective stretcher that certainly could be changed. This would allow the picture to be more effectively tightened. The work has been cleaned fairly recently and lightly varnished. There are retouches in the upper left, in the head of the brown haired girl on the left, in the chest and hair of the open mouthed dark haired figure, in the background above the figure holding the bow in front of the lion, and in the tree trunks above the girl playing the pipes. There is a group of retouches in the center of the right edge as well as some other isolated retouches in the painting. There is some thinness in the upper right of the woodland. However, given the scale and period of the work, the condition is impressive.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

La fête des bois, les bacchantes imagines a celebratory procession of flower-crowned revelers parading joyfully through the woods. Bridgman exhibited a near identical version, approximately one third of its size, at the Paris Salon of 1896, no. 311 (for illustration, see Sotheby's, February 12, 1997, lot 71). The painting certainly raised eyebrows and stirred feisty commentary when it was exhibited at London's Royal Academy. As one critic wrote in the Atheneum:

"Mr Bridgman's Bacchanti (no. 133) depicts a long line of modern models disporting themselves while in the antique manner they race through a wood and gambol with certain lions. There is a good deal of vivacity and cleverness about their gestures but if these are not portraits of professional sitters they must be likenesses of dancers from the opera. Their tall slender figures and general leanness do not indicate sympathy on the painter's part with those sculptured types of antiquity, which robust and vigorous as they are, are at the hand of every student. Had Mr. Bridgman, who generally figures at the Salon, called his picture Bacchanti of the Boulevard des Italiensi, we should have believed him, but we cannot accept as maenads of antique Greece the dashing and much excited girls whose characters as Mrs. Grundy is too apt to say will not bear examination."

Regardless of the models' origins, they make for a vivacious composition as they bounce through the thick forest, with a wildflower-covered floor, riding lions with reins of ivy and thrusting their thyrsos into the air (a symbol of Dionysus and sacred instrument of ancient ritual). Such a spirited procession would have resonated with Victorian audiences who were fascinated by Greco Roman culture and the potential for opulent transgression that was associated with it, but the mythological subject and decorative style represented a departure from Bridgman's usual subjects. Like many of his peers who were drawn to North Africa and the Middle East, and after spending time in the studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme, Bridgman visited Algeria in 1872 and earned his reputation as the greatest American Orientalist painter.

La fête des bois, les bacchantes was first shown in 1899 in a solo exhibition in New York City at Boussod & Valadon that included more than fifty works ranging from Grecian subjects, marine paintings, portraits, and five decorative murals (of which the present lot is one). Bridgman was back in the United States due to his wife's ailing health, and perhaps felt free to ride the artistic accolades he had received overseas and create a bold collection of paintings.  Audiences were captivated by the range of work and, as Harper's Weekly wrote: "The subjects of... Music of the Past, Fête of the Woods: Bacchanti, Harmony, The Rivulet and The Torrent, companion pictures which were exhibited at this year's Salon, mark the farthest point to which Mr. Bridgman has gone in his latest manner. His versatility is illustrated not only by the variety of subjects which has occupied his brush, but by the wide difference of feeling that characterizes his work." They continue: "The same remarkable power of expressing movement is apparent in the picture of the Bacchanti. There the figures are thrown into a variety of joyous attitudes, but the variety does not interfere with rhythmic continuity which proceeds through the whole group."

It is worth noting that Harper's was published by Hearst Corporation, and while other decorative murals were made for the artist's residence or The Harmonic Club of New York City, the present lot soon joined the distinguished collection of William Randolph Hearst. The painting was later offered in his impressive sale of property at Gimbel's in 1941 and then joined the collection of Ethel Siegel, where it hung in the Albert Kahn-designed Siegel Mansion in Detroit's Boston-Edison neighborhood.