Frederick William MacMonnies

Dr. Robert Gross, New Jersey (acquired circa 1970)

Thence by descent to the present owner

Mary Smart, A Flight with Fame: The Life and Art of Frederick MacMonnies (1863-1937), with a Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture and a Checklist of Paintings, Madison, Connecticut 1996, no. 23, p. 288, illustrated

Young Faun with Heron, also known as Boy with Heron, was originally conceived in 1890 as a six-foot fountain for the gardens at Naumkeag, the private estate of Joseph H. Choate in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. MacMonnies collaborated with esteemed architect Stanford White on the fountain commission, as White was the estate's primary architect.

Following the commission, MacMonnies exhibited the heroic size edition of Young Faun with Heron at the Paris Salon in 1890. After its successful reception at the Salon, the sculptor copyrighted the form and arranged for the Gruet foundry in Paris to cast the earliest reductions. There are a total of three editions of Young Faun with Heron, according to the artist's catalogue raisonné.