TitleOrphans
Artist
Pietro Montana
(1890 - 1978)
Datec. 1931
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 8 1/2 × 13 1/4 × 8 3/4 in.
Other (Sculpture): 7 3/4 × 12 1/2 × 7 1/4 in.
Other (Base): 3/4 × 12 3/4 × 8 3/4 in.
SignedInscribed on front: "P. Montana"
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, March 1, 1971
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number197-S
Label TextIn his autobiography written in 1977, Montana recalled the creation of this work, a realistic representation of two small pigs:In 1931, while I was living on Seventieth Street, the landlord of the house introduced me to the secretary of agriculture for our government. He asked me if I would make a sculpture for him, a small, piece, with animals.
I consented, and he gave me permission to visit one of the centers where many animals were kept, and I began my first animal, a cow.
While I was working, the attendant asked me if I wanted to see two baby pigs which had been born two days before. The two little pigs were in a box.
I asked curiously, "Don't they have a mother?" He answered, "We sold her yesterday."
I fell in love with these little creatures, and the next day I brought back with me enough material to make a life-size model of the two little pigs. I finished it in two days and called it The Orphans. I cast them in plaster and then carved them in black Belgian marble.
At the annual exhibition of the National Academy of Design, I entered The Orphans in the show. To my surprise, the New York Times announced in their news that The Orphans had won the gold-medal prize for me at the exhibit.
The sculpture won the Watrous Gold Medal at the Academy in 1931. A replica of it, in black marble, is at Brookgreen Gardens, Murrell's Inlet, South Carolina.
