HYATT HUNTINGTON, Anna Vaughn (1876 – 1973)

Yawning Tiger (ca. 1917)
4 x 13.5 x 3 inches (10.2 x 34.3 x 7.6 cm)
Signed, "Anna V. Hyatt"
With the Gorham Co. Founders foundry mark
Bronze, brown and black patina

Provenance: Private US Collection

Biography

Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington was born on March 10th 1876 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An accomplished and internationally known American sculptor, she specialized in wild and domestic animal sculpture as well as heroic monuments.  Anna was influenced by her father's work as a paleontologist and her mother's illustrations of her father's work.  Her father was a professor at Harvard as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  She had a special interest in horses and was also a frequent visitor to the Bronx Zoo in New York.

With her older sister, she became a student in Boston of Henry Hudson Kitson, and her first exhibit when she was age twenty-four included forty pieces, which was quite unusual for an artist so young. In 1902, she moved to New York and studied with Hermon Atkins MacNeil at the Art Students League and also worked for Gutzon Borglum. For a time she lived in New York with Abastenia St. Leger Eberle with whom she collaborated on a work titled Men and Bull in 1904 with Huntington doing the bull. This work won a bronze medal and generated considerable notice since collaboration by women was deemed a novelty. From 1907 – 10, she traveled abroad, spending time in Paris and Auvers-sur-Oise, France, and Italy. During this time, she created an equestrian sculpture of Joan of Arc that was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1910, and earned her a commission for the same subject on Riverside Drive in New York City, dedicated in 1915.

In 1923 Hyatt married New York philanthropist Archer M. Huntington, the son  of railroad magnate Collis Huntington, who was an uncle of Henry Huntington, founder of the Huntington Library & Art Gallery in San Marino, California. Together they became major patrons of traditional sculpture through their involvement in, and support of, the National Sculpture Society and the National Academy of Design.  She continued her career actively through the 1930s, producing numerous sculptures for the buildings and courtyard around the Hispanic Society in New York, which housed other institutions of Archer Huntington’s interest.

In 1927, the couple began to travel south during the winters for rest and a moderate climate, and in 1930, purchased a site of four historic plantations near Murrells Inlet on the South Carolina coast.  They had a winter residence called “Atalaya,” a garden and nature preserve.  Anna designed a butterfly shaped garden with pools and fountains around the site of the old plantation house.  In addition to placing bronze statues of her own, Diana of the Chase, Joan of Arc, and El Cid, the artist produced versions of many animals for the garden.  The Huntingtons also acquired other figurative and traditional sculptures, founding Brookgreen Gardens in 1931. The property opened the following year as the first public sculpture garden in the United States.

In 1940, they settled in Connecticut where they raised deer hounds and birds on their estate, Stanerigg Farm in Redding Ridge. The place became a gathering spot for many friends, and together they roamed the grounds with Huntington scaring off bird-threatening squirrels with her 22 calibre rifle.  She continued her sculpting until her death at age ninety-seven on October 4th, 1973. Her papers are in the Schlesinger Library of Radcliffe College. Mrs. Huntington is best known in California for her large equestrian statues of Jeanne D'Arc and El Cid in front of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.

She was a member of the National Academy Of Design ; The Copley Society of Design and the National Sculpture Society.

She exhibited at The Society of American Artists in 1903; The Louisiana Purchase Expo in St Louis in 1904, winning the bronze medal; The Lewis & Clark Expo in Portland in 1905; The Paris Salon in 1908 and again in 1910; Panama Pacific International Exposition winning the silver medal; She was awarded the Saltus medal in 1920 at The National Academy of Design and she again exhibited there in 1922 and 1928 – that year winning the Julia A. Shaw memorial prize and finally in 1958 she won a gold medal; She also exhibited at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in 1929. In 1937 She was awarded the George D. Widener Gold medal from The Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts in 1937. In addition to receiving high honours from Spain, she was awarded a gold medal for distinction in sculpture from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1930, an institution to which she was also elected in 1932. She was made honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Syracuse University in 1932. In 1940 she received a special medal of honour from the National Sculpture Society.

Her nephew wrote of her at a memorial exhibition dedicated to her last small sculptures: “Modelling was more than her profession, it was her sport, her companionship, her travel, her holiday, her adventure, her life’s dream.”

Anna Huntington’s work is displayed in nearly 200 museums in the United States.