Hyacinth Awaiting His Turn to Throw the Discus

c. 1824

François-Joseph Bosio (French, 1768-1845)

Monaco-born sculptor François-Joseph Bosio traveled for years in Italy before settling at the age of 40 in France, where he had a highly successful career as a sculptor of portrait busts and public monuments. At the 1817 Salon, Bosio exhibited a marble depiction of Hyacinth, which was greatly admired and purchased immediately by Louis XVIII.

Hyacinth was beloved by Apollo and killed by the jealous West Wind during a discus competition. Here, the young man is shown resting before throwing his discus, foreshadowing his death, which differs from typical depictions of Hyacinth dying. His idealized Greek profile, juvenile body, and sinuous yet graceful pose convey a noble if not heroic simplicity.

Status: On View, Gallery 218
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Baron François-Joseph Bosio
Title: Hyacinth Awaiting His Turn to Throw the Discus
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1817–1829
Medium: Bronze
Inscriptions: Inscribed: f. bosio (edge of base)
Dimensions: 44.5 × 124.5 cm (17 1/2 × 15 11/16 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior acquisitions of the George F. Harding Collection; Major Acquisitions Fund
Reference Number: 1991.117
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/117275/manifest.json

“Revue des ventes: Collection de Mme. la baronne Roger de Sivry,” Gazette de l’hôtel Drouot 13, no. 84–85 (March 24 and 25, 1904).
L. Barbarin, Étude sur Bosio: Sa vie et son oeuvre (Imprimerie de Monaco, 1910), 109–10.
Gérard Hubert, Les Sculpteurs italiens en France sous la Révolution, L’Empire et la Restauration, 1790–1830 (Paris: Éditions E. de Boccard, 1964), 109, no. 1.
Stanislas Lami, Dictionaire des sculpteurs de l’école française au dix-neuvième siècle 1, reprint (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus, 1970), 155.
“Principales acquisitions des musées en 1991,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 119 (March 1992): 71, fig. 242.
Ian Wardropper, “Collecting European Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Apollo 154, no. 475 (September 2001): 9–10, 12 n. 13, fig. 14.
Volker Krahn, “Die Regentschaft von Friedrich Wilhelm III,” Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 60, Von Italien nach Preußen: Die Entstehung der Skulpturensammlung im Königlichen Museum 1820–1870 (November 2022): 122, fig. 134.
For information about the feminized male nude in the neoclassical tradition, see: Abigail Solomon-Godeau, “The Body Politics of Homosociality,” in Male Trouble: A Crisis in Representation (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997), 43-97.

Madame G., Paris, before 1868; sold, her estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, July 14, 1868, lot 64 [see Hubert, p. 109]. Charles (?) Bardon, Paris, before 1874; offered for sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 9, 1874, lot 1, as “Narcisse.” Baron Roger de Sivry, Paris, before 1903; by descent to his widow, Baronness Roger de Sivry, Paris; sold, her estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 22–23, 1904, lot 181. Private collection, France [according to letter from Anthony Roth to Ian Wardropper, November 21, 1990, in curatorial file]. Anthony Roth Fine Art, London, by 1990; sold to the Art Institute, 1991.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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