Et in Arcadia Ego

Et in Arcadia Ego

1994
Bronze, edition of 6
Cast by Ken Cook
Signed McDonald
51 × 102 × 51 cm

Formerly titled Cézanne’s Table.

Et in Arcadia Ego is a large bronze still life bringing together a skull, fruit, vessels, cloth and other objects derived from paintings by Cézanne and other artists.

The title introduces the traditional idea of death existing within Arcadia: even amid abundance, beauty and pleasure, mortality is present. David Matthews described the work in 1994 as a homage to Cézanne, observing the contrast between the apples, pears and overflowing grapes and the skull that reminds us of death.

The sculpture belongs to a group of still lifes in which objects originally encountered in paintings were translated into three dimensions. Rather than reproducing those paintings literally, McDonald modelled each component separately, altering scale, texture and spatial relationships as the objects acquired an independent sculptural life.

Writing about the work in 1996, art critic John McDonald noted that Et in Arcadia Ego brought together “a skull, bowls of fruit and different vessels” from paintings by Cézanne. He placed it within Stephanie McDonald’s broader process of drawing upon historical paintings and then developing their imagery through modelling and repeated transformation.

The work was modelled from scratch rather than cast directly from existing objects. Its deliberately enlarged forms and strongly worked surfaces are characteristic of McDonald’s bronze still lifes of the period.

Exhibition history

1994
Stephanie McDonald, Coventry Gallery, Sydney, Australia.
Catalogue essay by David Matthews.

Orion Sculpture Park, Yass, New South Wales, Australia
Later installed and displayed outdoors as part of the sculpture collection.

Literature

1994
David Matthews, catalogue essay accompanying Stephanie McDonald’s exhibition at Coventry Gallery, Sydney. Matthews discusses Et in Arcadia Ego as a homage to Cézanne and relates its abundant fruit and skull to the traditional still-life theme of mortality.

1996
John McDonald, Recent Sculpture, catalogue essay. McDonald discusses Et in Arcadia Ego in relation to Cézanne and to McDonald’s transformation of imagery from historic paintings into sculpture.

Edition record

Bronze edition of 6.
Edition I/VI is independently recorded in the surviving bronze list.

I have included the pics of the clay version and then the plaster version I cast.