Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (March 10 1876 – October 4 ,1973) was an American sculptor. She was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Early years
Her father, Alpheus Hyatt, was a professor of paleontology and zoology at Harvard University and MIT, a contributing factor to her early interest in animals and animal anatomy. Huntington initially studied with Henry Hudson Kitson in Boston, who threw her out after she identified equine anatomical deficiencies in his work [see Rubinstein in references]. She studied later with Hermon Atkins MacNeil and Gutzon Borglum at the Art Students League in New York City. In addition to these formal studies she spent many hours doing extensive study of animals in various zoos and circuses. She was one of two hundred and fifty sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949.
Other activities
Huntington and her husband, Archer Milton Huntington, founded Brookgreen Gardens near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She was a member of the National Academy of Design and the National Sculpture Society and a donation of $100,000 from her and her husband made possible the NSS Exhibition of 1929 [see references]. Because of her husband's enormous wealth and the shared interests of the couple, the Huntington's were responsible for founding fourteen museums and four wild life preserves.
Public equestrian monuments
- Joan of Arc, Riverside Drive, New York City, Gloucester, Massachusetts and Blois, France for which she was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the government of France in (1915)
- El Cid, Hispanic Society of America (New York City), California Palace of the Legion of Honor (San Francisco, California), Washington, D.C., and Balboa Park, San Diego, California, and Seville, Spain (1927)
- José Martí, Central Park, New York City, begun in the mid 1950s, when the artist was over eighty years old, but not unveiled until 1965 due to the political ramifications of so honoring a Cuban nationalist
- General Israel Putnam, Putnam Memorial Park, Redding, Connecticut, commemorates General Putnam's escape from the British in 1779 when he rode down a cliff at Horseneck Heights in Greenwich, Connecticut. This was her last major work, completed when she was ninety-one years old. The statue is located at the intersection of Routes 58 and 107 at the entrance to Putnam Park. A picture of this statue may be seen at ([1]).
- Other equestrian statues by Huntington greet visitors to the entrance to Redding Elementary School, Rt. 107 and John Read Middle School, Rt. 53 and at the Mark Twain Library, Rt. 53, all in Redding, Connecticut. The statue at the elementary school is called "Fighting Stallions" and the one at the middle school is called "A Tribute to the Workhorse".
- Los Portadores de la Antorcha ("The Torch-bearers"), cast aluminum, Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid, was given to the people of Spain to symbolize the passing of the torch of Western civilization from age to youth; it was unveiled 15 May 1955. A bronze casting is located on the grounds of the Discovery Museum, Park Avenue in Bridgeport, Connecticut, one mile south of Rt. 15 Exit 47.
- A bronze casting of her statue "The Torch Bearer" is also located on the grounds of The University of South Carolina's Wardlaw College at .
- The sculptor created a statue of Sybil Ludington to commemorate the 1777 ride of this 16-year-old who rode forty miles at night to warn local militia of approaching British troops in response to the burning of Danbury, Connecticut. The statue is located on Rt. 52 next to Glenedia Lake in Carmel, New York (1961).
- A peaceful statue of Abraham Lincoln reading a book, while sitting on a grazing horse is located in front of the Bethel Public Library, Rt. 302 in Bethel, Connecticut. The statue bears the signature, Anna Huntington, with the date of 1961.
- "Conquering the Wild" overlooks the Lions Bridge and Lake Maury at the Mariner's Museum Park in Newport News, Va.
Other works
Her animal sculptures, figures of both life-sized and in smaller proportions, are in museums and collections throughout the United States. She spent two years collaborating with Abastenia St. Leger Eberle to produce Man and Bull, which was exhibited at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904.
Two statues by Anna Hyatt Huntington grace the entrance to Collis P. Huntington State Park in Redding and Bethel, Connecticut. One statue shows a mother bear with her cubs and the other statue shows two wolves howling. The park was donated to the state of Connecticut by Anna Hyatt Huntington and Archer M. Huntington.
See also
References
- Armstrong, Craven, et al., 200 Years of American Sculpture, Whitney Museum of Art, New York, 1976.
- Craven, Wayne, Sculpture in America, Thomas Y. Crowell Co, New York, 1968.
- Evans, Cerinda W., Anna Hyatt Huntington, The Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia, 1965.
- National Sculpture Society, Contemporary American Sculpture 1929, National Sculpture Society, New York, 1929.
- Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina, 1968.
- Opitz, Glenn B , Editor, Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie, New York, 1986.
- Rubenstein, Charlotte Streifer, American Women Sculptors, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston, 1990.
- Leary, Joseph, A Shared Landscape: A Guide & History of Connecticut's State Parks & Forests, Friends of Connecticut State Parks Inc., Hartford, CT, 2004.
