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Boy and Duck

1895–96, cast 1901
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 700
MacMonnies’s best groups have an exuberance resulting from his affinity for contemporary sculpture in France, where he spent much of his career. Modeled in Paris, “Boy and Duck” depicts a laughing boy delighted at having captured a prize duck. When the work is installed as a fountain, the duck and ducklings spout water from their open beaks, and the implied noise and confusion of the moment are vividly evoked. The theme of a nude boy struggling with a feisty animal dates back to ancient works of art, some of which MacMonnies had admired on a trip to Italy in 1894. The tradition was revived in Italian Renaissance art and carried further in nineteenth-century French and American sculpture.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title:
    Boy and Duck
  • Artist:
    Frederick William MacMonnies (American, New York 1863–1937 New York)
  • Date:
    1895–96, cast 1901
  • Culture:
    American
  • Medium:
    Bronze
  • Dimensions:
    29 3/4 x 23 1/2 x 13 3/4 in. (75.6 x 59.7 x 34.9 cm)
  • Credit Line:
    Rogers Fund, 1922
  • Object Number:
    22.61
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

Audio

Cover Image for 4509. Boy and Duck

4509. Boy and Duck

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MORRISON HECKSCHER: In this appealing fountain sculpture by Frederick MacMonnies, a chubby toddler has captured a mother duck. On the base, her ducklings look up with concern. Limbs, wings, feathers and feet thrust in all directions. And you can practically hear the laughter of the boy, the squawking of the duck, and the flapping of the wings.

The theme of children struggling with feisty animals or fish stretches back to antiquity and the Renaissance. This sculpture very much reflects the spontaneous naturalism of contemporary beaux-arts style. MacMonnies spent his mature years in France, where he had studied at the famed École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

The figure of the nude little boy is quite believable, with his pudgy legs, bulging stomach and tousled hair. And the modeling of the sculpture’s bronze surface is also quite animated. MacMonnies modeled Boy and Duck in Paris in 1895-1896. And for more than forty years, the original bronze fountain graced a waterlily pool in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, NY. This was a gift from MacMonnies to his native city. The Metropolitan purchased this cast directly from the artist in 1922.

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Cupid
Frederick William MacMonnies (American, New York 1863–1937 New York)
1898
Niagara
Frederick William MacMonnies (American, New York 1863–1937 New York)
1892
Young Faun with Heron
Frederick William MacMonnies (American, New York 1863–1937 New York)
1889–90, cast ca. 1902
The Cobbler
Frederick William MacMonnies (American, New York 1863–1937 New York)
1885
Self-portrait
Frederick William MacMonnies (American, New York 1863–1937 New York)
ca. 1904

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