TitleContented Lioness
Artist
Anna Hyatt Huntington
(1876-1973)
Date1922
MediumLimestone
DimensionsOverall: 15 1/2 x 12 1/8 x 6 in.
SignedSigned left rear: "Anna V. Hyatt"
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, February 5, 1923
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number61-S
Label TextHuntington was one of the finest animaliers of the 20th century. Early in life she developed an interest in modeling domestic animals. By 1905 she began to focus on animals of a wider sort. Her love of animals probably passed to her from her zoologist father. Huntington may have conceived Contented Lioness with the idea that it would serve as an interior decoration or form of gatepost to flank the entrance of a new Academy headquarters – which in 1923 the institution hoped to build.
In 1939, the sculptor and her husband Archer Milton Huntington donated their home at 1083 Fifth Avenue, as well as adjoining property, to the National Academy. The couple’s second home in Haverstraw, New York had a full zoo, including boars, tigers, and bears, which she used as models.
