Taken from Homer’s Odyssey, Circe was a sorceress who turned her victims into beasts. This life-size femme fatale was Mackennal’s largest work to date, and was clearly meant to make a daring proclamation. First exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1893, Circe was awarded a Mention honourable. The following year it was shown in London as a plaster, and created a sensation when exhibition organisers draped its base to hide the ambiguously entwined figures.