Autumn

This sculpture portrays Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. Sometimes portrayed as rowdy and excessive, here he instead appears calm and composed. Hoisting a bundle of grapes to his shoulder, he gazes softly into the distance, perhaps savoring a moment of peace and plenty.

A New Yorker, Stebbins created this neoclassical sculpture while living in Rome, where she belonged to a community of expatriate women artists that included her romantic partner, the famed stage actress Charlotte Cushman. Within this circle, scenes of classical mythology often symbolized the personal freedom of life abroad, where one could live and work with a degree of distance from more constraining social expectations for women in the United States.