FREDRICK ARTHUR BRIDGMAN 'LA FETE DES BOIS', LES BACCHANTES

Frederick Arthur Bridgman
La Fête des Bois, Les Bacchantes
signed F.A. Bridgman (lower left)
oil on canvas
Dimensions: Height: 73" Width: 150" ( 185.4cm x 381cm)

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:

Provenance
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)

Exhibited
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

Literature
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