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The Great God Pan

The Great God Pan is a bronze sculpture by American artist George Gray Barnard, cast between 1898 and 1899. Barnard conceived the work in 1894, originally imagining it as a fountain sculpture for The Dakota in Manhattan. After several rejected proposals for Central Park, the bronze was eventually donated to Columbia College and installed in 1907 on a redesigned fountain setting by Charles Follen McKim. The sculpture has been moved several times on campus, but it remains at Columbia University in New York City. At the time of its casting, it was the largest single-piece bronze sculpture cast in the United States.

The Great God Pan fountain with a reclining figure and central urn ornament in a grassy area.
The Great God Pan fountain photographed with its reclining figure and urn ornament, surrounded by grass, trees, and nearby buildings.
© Bain News Service, publisher · Public domain
The Great God Pan bronze statue reclining and playing a pipe beside a fountain basin.
The Great God Pan statue shown in a close-up, with the reclining horned figure playing a pipe above a fountain basin.
1900 © · Public domain
The Great God Pan reclining on a fountain pedestal with lion-head spouts and a tiered pool below.
The Great God Pan statue shown in close-up, reclining above a fountain with water flowing from lion-head spouts.
© Bain News Service, publisher · Public domain
The Great God Pan fountain with a dark sculpture on a stone base in an urban park setting.
The Great God Pan fountain with its central sculpture in a city park.
1918 © George Grey Barnard (1863-1938), sculptorCharles Follen McKim (1847-1909), architectunidentified phototgrapher · Public domain
The Great God Pan fountain with a dark bronze figure at the center of a curved stone basin.
The Great God Pan fountain rises from a curved stone basin in a grassy campus setting.
© Bain News Service, publisher · Public domain

Identification

TitleThe Great God Pan
Common namePan
Typebronze sculpture

Creator

ArtistGeorge Gray Barnard
Artist nationalityAmerican

Historical context

Conceived1894
Original purposea fountain sculpture
Original intended locationthe courtyard of The Dakota, Manhattan's Upper West Side
Original patronAlfred Corning Clark
Commissioned byAlfred Corning Clark in 1895
Scalelarger than life-size
Never installed at original locationThe sculpture was never installed at The Dakota

Discovery and provenance

Bronze cast loaned tothe Metropolitan Museum of Art and international exhibitions
Bronze casting funded byEdward Severin Clark
Related rejected companion workFrederick William MacMonnies's Bacchante and Infant Faun
Related cartoonThe Two Orphans, published by the New York Evening Telegram on June 10, 1897
Alternative proposed sitea boulder fronting on Central Park Lake
City acceptance and rejectionThe New York City Art Commission approved the gift, but the Parks Commission debated it for six months and ultimately rejected it
Proposed donation to New York CityIn November 1896, Clark's family offered the sculpture as the centerpiece of a fountain in Central Park, with the Clark estate paying all casting and erection costs

Materials

Main materialbronze
Base materialgreen granite
Stone materialPompton pink granite
Stone sourcequarried in Pompton Lakes and Riverdale, New Jersey

Technique

Model formplaster model
Casting methodcast in a single piece rather than assembled from separately cast parts
FoundryHenry-Bonnard Bronze Company, Mount Vernon, New York
Foundry managerEugene F. Aucaigne
Casting dateAugust 1898
Casting significanceAt the time, it was the largest bronze sculpture cast in a single piece in the United States

Appearance

Additional modeled elementLaughing Faun, a small mask intended to cover the water spouts around the sculpture's base
Base designa rock surrounded by reeds and cattails, with a standing crane to visually balance Pan's head
Posereclining lazily on his side atop a rock
Actionplaying a reed flute and dangling one hoof over the edge of the rock
Subjectthe Greek god Pan, a half-man, half-goat deity associated with pastoral life, rustic music, and carnality
Figure appearancea mature, strongly muscled figure with a long tangled beard, goat ears, and cloven hooves, but no horns or tail

Location and ownership

Architectural setting designerCharles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead & White
Relocation historyMoved in 1959 to Amsterdam Avenue and 119th Street, moved again in 1963 to a courtyard between Fayerweather and Avery Halls, and relocated to its current site in 1975
Architectural settinga D-shaped granite fountain basin, circular pool, stepped platform, and exedra (curved stone bench)
Current sitenorth of West 116th Street, between Lewisohn Hall and Low Memorial Library
Original Columbia installation siteThe Green at Amsterdam Avenue and 120th Street, then the northeast corner of the campus
Original Columbia installation date1907
Fountain namePan Fountain
Donated toColumbia College (now Columbia University) by Edward Clark and his mother

History and restoration

Buffalo exhibitionPan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, May to November 1901
Boston exhibitionMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston, November–December 1908, in Barnard's solo exhibition
St. Louis World's Fair recognitionBarnard was not recognized for the artistic merit of Pan
St. Louis World's Fair awardHenry-Bonnard Bronze Company received a gold medal for casting the sculpture
St. Louis World's Fair displayExhibited in 1904 in St. Louis, Missouri, as part of an industrial display inside the Palace of Manufactures
National Sculpture Society exhibitionMadison Square Garden, New York City, November 1902
Buffalo awardgold medal for Pan and The Struggle of the Two Natures in Man
Buffalo display locationin front of the art gallery
Plaster exhibitionBarnard's first one-man exhibition, November 1898, under the glass roof of the Logerot Hotel winter garden, Fifth Avenue and 18th Street, New York City
Paris awardgold medal for Pan and The Struggle of the Two Natures in Man
Paris display locationalong the Champs-Élysées
Paris exhibitionExposition Universelle in Paris, April to November 1900
Loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Artfor a year beginning in spring 1899
Faun masks usedno
Base cast in bronzeno
Fountain ideaabandoned after the Parks Commission rejected the Central Park proposal
Base used as fountainPlaced on a neoclassical green-granite base with three bronze lion-head water spouts

Significance

Contemporary significanceIt was the largest bronze sculpture cast in one piece in the United States at the time
Inspired poemTo the Great God Pan by Ralph Perry, editor of the 1916 yearbook The Columbian