TitleA Horse
Artist
Alexander Phimister Proctor
(American, 1862 - 1950)
Date1895-1898
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 16 × 15 × 5 in.
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, December 5, 1904
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number92-S
Label TextIn 1895, while he was working on the horse for Augustus Saint-Gaudens's monument to General Sherman in New York, Proctor sculpted this figure of a horse, the model for which belonged to the same Long Island lawyer who owned the animal which Proctor used for Sherman's mount. According to Proctor's memoirs, the model for the Academy's horse was "not a thoroughbred" and the sculptor used the animal for his equestrian figure, The Indian Warrior. He modeled the Indian for this statue while visiting the Blackfoot tribe in Montana late in 1895. He did not complete the work, however, until 1898 when he was in Paris. The sculpture was conceived as an eighteen-inch statuette and cast in Paris in both this version and a larger, three foot version. Proctor exhibited a cast of The Indian Warrior at the Paris Salon in 1898 and Lorado Taft called it "the most important thing which he has thus far given us." The sculptor was proud of the work for he also exhibited it at the Paris Exposition in 1900, the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901, and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904.This cast of the horse alone was accepted by the Academy as Proctor's diploma work with the understanding that Proctor would replace it at a future date with "a more representative work," an action which was evidently never carried out. Considering Proctor's importance and reknown as an animalier, it is difficult to understand why the Academy felt that this horse was not representative of his work.
Collections
- 19th Century Highlights from the Collection
