Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (American, 1876-1973)
Lioness and Cubs
Circa 1906
Signed ‘Anna v. Hyatt. Sc’ numbered ‘5’ and stamped ‘G.C’ flanking a lion, also ‘Q.9’ for Gorham Manufacturing Company
Patinated bronze of good colour
Number 5, of 84 only casts from 1906.
Provenance: Estate of the American artist Emma Fordyce Macrae, thence by descent.
Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington was one of the most important American female sculptors of the 20th century; best known for her animalier sculpture. She was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1876, and was first influenced by the work of her father as a professor of paleontology and zoology at both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Boston University.
She studied under Henry Hudson Kitson briefly in 1898, though her formal training was rather limited and she relied instead on a keen understanding of animals together with powerful observation skills.
Her first important foundry association was with Roman Bronze Works after initially moving to New York, but in 1905 she began working with Gorham Company Founders in Providence, a relationship that would last throughout most of her career. She continued to work with other foundries, but the majority of her sculptures were cast by Gorham and she relied on them to market her bronzes from their Fifth Avenue gallery on a royalty basis.
Her work remains in the permanent collections of over 200 museums.
Reference: Brown University’s John Hay Library: Gorham Manufacturing Company records.
