Carved Stone Dog

Maker Anna Hyatt Huntington (American, 1876 - 1973)

Collections

American Sculpture

ClassificationsSCULPTURE

Date1910

Mediumstone

Dimensionsheight: 44 1/4 in. (112.4 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Status

On view

Label TextDogs were dear to sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, one of the most successful woman artists of the early 20th century. She was related to Henry and Arabella Huntington through her marriage to Arabella's son Archer in 1923. Anna grew up drawing animals on her family's farm in Porto Bello, Maryland—combining the interests of her father, a Harvard zoologist, and her mother, an amateur painter. As a teen, she attempted a statue of the family’s great dane, named Malack, and was inspired to become a professional sculptor.

A few years later, Anna began to grow in reputation as a skillful animalier, or artist who depicts animals. Her first sales and solo exhibition were in her hometown of Boston. In 1903, she moved to New York City, where she sculpted animals at the Bronx Zoo and was roommates with fellow sculptor Abastenia St. Leger Eberle. Throughout her long career, during which she achieved unprecedented awards, recognition, and commissions in an era generally prohibitive of women artists, she sculpted exotic animals as well as historic and mythical human figures, ranging from small statuettes to grand public monuments. However, she often returned to dogs and great danes, in particular, such as the pair in granite now at Brookgreen Gardens and two in bronze at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Arabella purchased The Huntington's pair of carved stone dogs as a birthday gift for Henry. Though they look alike, the two Great Danes have subtle differences, for example, the angle of their heads, position of their ears, or how they sit.

Object number23.1