Anna Hyatt Huntington

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Anna Hyatt Huntington

Anna Hyatt Huntington (born March 10, 1876 in Cambridge , Massachusetts as Anna Vaughn Hyatt ; † October 4, 1973 in Redding Ridge, Redding , Connecticut ) was an American sculptor who focused primarily on the production of heroic equestrian statues and animal sculptures (Domestic animals as well as wild animals) specialized.

Live and act

Equestrian statue of the Cuban national hero José Martí in front of Central Park , New York
The Torch Bearers in front of Complutense University , Madrid

She was born as the third child and youngest daughter of the zoologist Alpheus Hyatt (1838-1902) and Audella Beebe Hyatt (1840-1932) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her father encouraged her interest in animals, especially horses, at an early age, and she learned their behavior from him. Her mother supported her husband in his scientific publications by drawing sketches and diagrams for his books. In addition, she operated landscape painting as a hobby.

Anna Hyatt Huntington was initially fixated on a career as a violinist. For her wish as a musician, she practiced the violin eight hours a day. In 1895, a request for help from her sister Harriet Hyatt, who made portraits and figures from clay, caused a rethink. She modeled a group of dogs for her sister. The work was successfully sold after completion. Encouraged by this, the two sisters worked closely together. Harriet Hyatt taught her the basics of modeling. Anna was responsible for making the animal groups; Harriet took care of the people. In 1900 she had her first own exhibition at the Boston Arts Club. In the same year she completed her first major work: Two Great Danes made of blue granite for a wealthy Boston trader.

She studied with her sister with the sculptor Henry Hudson Kitson in Boston. After her father died in 1902, she went to work in New York and studied sculpture under Hermon Atkins MacNeil at the Art Students League of New York . During this time she also worked for the sculptor John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum and lived and worked with Abastenia St. Leger Eberle . She often went to the Bronx Zoo for her animal observations .

Between 1906/07 and 1910/11 she toured England, Italy (Naples) and France (Paris) and created the equestrian monument for Joan of Arc for the city of Blois in France . In between, she returned to the United States in 1909.

At the age of 47, on March 10, 1923, she married the wealthy philanthropist Archer Milton Huntington , the adopted son of Collis P. Huntington . They lived in what is now the National Academy of Design on Fifth Avenue and Eighty-ninth Street in New York and moved over the winter to Atalaya Castle , which is still located on Huntington Beach State Park near Murrells Inlet . She traveled a lot with her husband, including to North Africa. In 1927 Anna Hyatt Huntington fell ill with tuberculosis . Even after her illness she did not allow herself a break from work, so that she carried this infectious disease around with her until 1937.

Equestrian statue of the Castilian knight El Cid in Balboa Park (San Diego)

In 1930, her husband, Archer Milton Huntington, bought the site of the Brookgreen Gardens, which they later founded, between Murrells Inlet ( Georgetown County ) and the city of Myrtle Beach , South Carolina . It was the first sculpture park in the United States. The site was originally intended as the couple's winter quarters. Because Anna Hyatt Huntington was ill, they were looking for a warmer climate and bought a piece of land in Redding, Connecticut. The park now contains statues and sculptures by American artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. Works by Anna Hyatt Huntington herself, Daniel Chester French and Frederic Remington, among others . At the same time, the garden is also a refuge for native plants and animals.

In 1932, she and her husband acquired 320 acres of land in Newport News , Virginia , where they opened the Mariners' Museum , which is now considered one of the largest nautical museums in the world.

In 1955, Archer Milton Huntington died at the age of eighty-five after a long illness. Anna Hyatt Huntington lived and worked on the joint ranch in Redding until her death on October 4, 1973. She was a member of the National Academy of Design and the National Sculpture Society .

Honors

In 1922 she was accepted as a knight in the French Legion of Honor . In the same year, Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington was elected a member ( NA ) of the National Academy of Design. In 1927 she was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

Works (selection)

Horse trainer in Balboa Park

  • Animal sculpture of a bear with cubs

  • Animal sculpture of howling wolves

literature

  • Émile Schaub-Koch: Sculptures d'Anna Hyatt-Huntington 1949-1960 . Grafica Monumental, Lisbon 1961.
  • S. Steinhäuser: Huntington, Anna Hyatt . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 75, de Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-023180-9 , p. 533.
  • Anne Higonnet (Ed.): Goddess, Heroine, Beast. Anna Hyatt Huntington's New York Sculpture, 1902–1936 . The Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York 2014, ISBN 978-1-884919-31-2 .

Web links

Commons : Anna Hyatt Huntington  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nationalacademy.org: Past Academicians "H" / Huntington, Anna Vaughn Hyatt NA 1922 ( memento of April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed June 26, 2015)
  2. ^ Members: Anna Hyatt Huntington. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed April 5, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Huntington, Anna Hyatt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Huntington, Anna Vaughn Hyatt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sculptress
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Cambridge , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH 4th October 1973
Place of death Redding Ridge, Redding , Connecticut