Lions | |
---|---|
![]() The northern sculpture in 2006 | |
![]() | |
Artist | Edward Kemeys |
Year | 1893 |
Medium | Bronze sculpture |
Subject | Lions |
Location | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
41°52′46.0″N87°37′26.8″W / 41.879444°N 87.624111°W |
Lions is a pair of 1893 bronze sculptures by Edward Kemeys, installed outside of the main entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The sculptures are well-recognized public artworks.
The sculptures were commissioned by Florence Lathrop Field as a gift to the museum in memory of her late husband Henry Field.
The bronze sculptures [1] are modeled after African lions. [2] Each sculpture weighs more than two tons. [2] [1] [3] The northern sculpture weighs approximately 5,100 pounds (2,300 kg). [4] They are approximately 10 feet (3.0 m) in length. [5] Today, the sculptures have a green patina. [1] The sculptures flank the outside of the main entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago Building (home to the Art Institute of Chicago), being located along the east side of South Michigan Avenue at the road's intersection with East Adams Street in the city of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. [1] [5] [6] [7] The sculptures have occasionally been referred to as the "great protectors". [8]
The artist, Edward Kemeys, described the statues as "guarding the building." [9] Both are depicted in active poses. [10] Kemeys described the northern lion as positioned "on the prowl," and said that it "has his back up, and is ready for a roar and a spring." He described the southern lion as positioned "in an attitude of defiance" and "attracted by something in the distance which he is closely watching." [1] [3] [9] Kemeys referred to the design of the southern sculpture as "the most difficult I have ever attempted." [10] Kemeys was a leading figure in America's animalier arts movement. Like other artists in the animalier movement (which began in France), he studied living animals as inspiration for his works. [7]
The sculptures are often described as being bronze re-castings of temporary plaster lion sculptures that Kemeys had created for display on the grounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition outside of the Palace of Fine Arts (today's Museum of Science and Industry building). [3] [9] However, documents and photographs from the World's Fair contradict this claim, indicating instead that the lion sculptures displayed at the World's Columbian Exposition had been created by A. Phimister Proctor and Theodore Baur rather than Kemeys. [11]
The bronze sculptures for the Art Institute of Chicago were commissioned by Florence Lathrop Field, an early benefactor of the museum. [3] Fields' late husband Henry Field had been an admirer of Kemeys' sculptures, and her brother Bryan Lathrop, a trustee of the Art Institute, had been a patron of Kemeys. [12]
After the board of trustees of the Art Institute of Chicago had made a decision for there to be guardian lion sculptures outside of the new museum building, the president of the board of trustees, Charles L. Hutchinson, favored commissioning such as work from one of a dozen better-known sculptors. Those considered included Augustus Bauer, Daniel Chester French, Frederick William Macmonnies, Philip Martiny, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. [12] Bryan Lathrop wrote him in September of 1892, strongly recommending he choose Kemeys. Lathrop proposed having his sister, Florence Lathrop Field, acquire and gift the Art Institute such sculptures. [12] Lathrop stated that Field had wanted to donate them anonymously. However, in voting to accept the gift on January 31, 1893, the board of trustees executive committee also voted to thank the donor. [12] The sculptures were cast in Chicago by the American Bronze Founding Company in 1893, [1] and were unveiled on May 10, 1894. [1] [2]
The sculptures are regarded to be iconic features of Chicago, [13] [2] [14] being among the city's most well-known sculptures. [7] The Chicago Lions rugby union team, founded in 1964, is named for the statues. [15] An unofficial Twitter account exists for the sculptures. [13] They are, nowadays, decorated in the winter holiday season with wreaths and bows in an annual "wreathing of the lions" ceremony. [3] This tradition was begun in 1991 and has been done nearly every year since. [16] The wreathing ceremony is traditionally held the day following the United States Thanksgiving holiday observance. [17] Often, when a Chicago major league sports team is making a strong postseason run, the sculptures will be adorned with oversized mock-ups of hats or helmets in order to show support for the team. [3] [14] In late April 2020 (amid the COVID-19 pandemic), mock-ups of a surgical mask were placed on the sculptures in order to bring public attention to health safety measures implemented in Illinois at the time that required masking in public. A mock-up of a mask was similarly placed on the Chicago Picasso . Within a day vandals had removed one of the masks on the lion sculptures, which was quickly replaced. [18] [19]
In 2015, as part of the Statue Stories Chicago public art exhibit, QR codes were installed near each of the statues. If scanned, the codes would allow the lions to "speak", with one of them being voiced by Tracy Letts and the other by Francis Guinan. Tina Landau of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company wrote a script in which the two sculptures were portrayed as "gently feuding brothers". [20] In 2018, as part of another Statue Stories of Chicago installation, [21] the sculptures were voiced by Letts and Mandy Patinkin. [2]
In 2020, the base of the northern sculpture was vandalized, with the words "inside mania" spray painted beneath the statute. A woman was criminally charged for the vandalism. [18] [22] In July 2021, the northern sculpture itself was vandalized with spray painted tagging. [23]
In 1910, the sculptures were moved slightly from their original placement to new positions 12 feet (3.7 m) nearer to the museum building. They remained in place until being temporarily removed from early 2000 until 2001, being removed in order to accommodate repair work to the entrance of the building. [5] During this time, the sculptures underwent conservation work. They were removed a second time in 2022 to again undergo conservation work (cleaning and waxing). [13] A time capsule was placed after the 2001 conservation work, accompanying a much older time capsule that is also concealed by the sculptures. During the 2022 conservation work, the time capsules were temporarily removed, being returned unopened when the sculptures were reinstalled. Furthermore, the south sculpture was found to have two Indian Head cent coins underneath it, which were temporarily removed and again returned to their place underneath the sculpture when it was reinstalled. [24]
Evelyn Beatrice Longman was an American sculptor whose allegorical figure works were commissioned as monuments and memorials, adornment for public buildings, and attractions at art expositions in the early 20th-century. She became the first woman sculptor to be elected a full member of the National Academy of Design in 1919.
The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. It is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park. Its collection, stewarded by 11 curatorial departments, includes works such as Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, and Grant Wood's American Gothic. Its permanent collection of nearly 300,000 works of art is augmented by more than 30 special exhibitions mounted yearly that illuminate aspects of the collection and present curatorial and scientific research.
Francis Derwent Wood was a British sculptor.
The Art Institute of Chicago Building houses the Art Institute of Chicago, and is part of the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. The building is located in Grant Park on the east side of Michigan Avenue, and marks the third address for the Art Institute. The main building was built for the joint purpose of providing an additional facility for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, and subsequently the Art Institute. The core of the current complex, located opposite Adams Street, officially opened to the public on December 8, 1893, and was renamed the Allerton Building in 1968.
Abraham Lincoln: The Man is a larger-than-life size 12-foot (3.7 m) bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. The original statue is in Lincoln Park in Chicago, and later re-castings of the statue have been given as diplomatic gifts from the United States to the United Kingdom, and to Mexico.
Edward Kemeys was an American sculptor and considered America's first animalier.
The Statue of The Republic is a 24-foot-high (7.3 m) gilded bronze sculpture in Jackson Park, Chicago, Illinois by Daniel Chester French. The colossal original statue, a centerpiece of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, was ordered afterwards to be destroyed by fire. A smaller-scale replica sculpted by the same artist was erected in 1918 in commemoration of both the 25th anniversary of the Exposition and the Illinois' statehood centennial. The replacement statue is at the south end of the park at the intersection of East Hayes and South Richards Drive, adjacent to the golf course and approximately where the exposition's Administration Building and Electricity Building once stood. The statue was funded by the Benjamin Ferguson Fund, which commissioned French to cast this recreation of the original 65-foot-tall (20 m) statue that stood on the grounds of the Exposition of 1893. Edith Minturn Stokes served as French's model for the original statue. Henry Bacon, the architect of the Lincoln Memorial, designed the festooned pedestal for the replica.
Columbus is a historic statue in Johnston, Rhode Island. The statue is a bronze cast of a sterling silver statue which was created by Rhode Island's Gorham Manufacturing Company for the 1892 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The original silver statue was not meant for permanent exhibition, but rather as a demonstration of the skills of the Gorham Company, and was later melted down. The bronze cast was dedicated on November 8, 1893, in Columbus Square, in Providence, Rhode Island, United States as a gift from the Elmwood Association to the City of Providence.
Humboldt Park is a 207-acre (84 ha) park located at 1400 North Sacramento Avenue in West Town, on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois. It opened in 1877, and is one of the largest parks on the West Side. The park's designers include William Le Baron Jenney, and Jens Jensen.
Thompson Elk Fountain, also known as the David P. Thompson Fountain, David P. Thompson Monument, Elk Fountain, the Thompson Elk, or simply Elk, was a historic fountain and bronze sculpture by American artist Roland Hinton Perry. The fountain with its statue was donated to the city of Portland, Oregon, United States, in 1900 for display in Downtown Portland's Plaza Blocks. It was owned by the City of Portland.
Vera Katz, also known as Mayor, Vera Katz, is an outdoor bronze sculpture depicting Vera Katz created by American artist Bill Bane. Unveiled in 2006, it is located along the Eastbank Esplanade in Portland, Oregon. Katz, a former mayor of the city between 1993 and 2005, supported arts and culture during her tenure and established Oregon's Percent for Art program. She was also instrumental in developing the Eastbank Esplanade, which is named after her. The sculpture has received a mostly positive reception and has inspired people to adorn it with clothing, flowers and makeup.
A 1926–27 statue of George Washington by Italian American artist Pompeo Coppini was installed in northeast Portland, Oregon, United States. The bronze sculpture was the second of three statues of Washington by the artist, following a similar statue installed in Mexico City in 1912 and preceding another installed on the University of Texas at Austin campus in February 1955. The Portland statue was created to commemorate the 1926 sesquicentennial of the Declaration of Independence and dedicated in 1927. It was part of the City of Portland and Multnomah County Public Art Collection courtesy of the Regional Arts & Culture Council. In June 2020, it was toppled by protestors.
There are several monuments to commemorate the Haymarket affair.
An outdoor 1992 bronze sculpture of Christopher Columbus by Joe Incrapera was installed in Houston's Bell Park, in the U.S. state of Texas. It was later removed in 2020 after a history of vandalism.
A statue of Christopher Columbus was installed in Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, in Boston's North End, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. On June 11, 2020, the statue was removed for an undisclosed period after it was decapitated by protestors on the evening of June 9, 2020 during the George Floyd protests.
Florence Lathrop Field Page was an American socialite and philanthropist. Born into the esteemed Barbour family, Page became a notable society figure and philanthropist. Page was considered a member of America's urban elite. She was twice married, first to Henry Field, and later to Thomas Nelson Page. In addition to being a member of the Barbour family by birth, through her second marriage she became a member of two additional noted Virginia families: the Nelson and Page families.
Henry Field was an American businessman and philanthropist. A millionaire, Field was involved in the business ventures of his brother Marshall Field, as well as many other commercial ventures.
A bronze statue of George Floyd (1973–2020), an African-American man who was murdered by police in Minneapolis, was completed by Stanley Watts and unveiled in 2021. It is situated outside Newark, New Jersey's City Hall in Government Center.
General Alexander Macomb is a monumental statue in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It was designed by sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman and was dedicated in 1908 in honor of Alexander Macomb, a Detroit native who had served as the Commanding General of the United States Army for several years in the early 1800s. The monument, which consists of the bronze statue of Macomb standing atop a granite pedestal on a circular concrete platform, was dedicated on September 11, on the anniversary of the Battle of Plattsburgh, a War of 1812 battle that Macomb had participated in. Since the 2010s, the statue has come under criticism due to Macomb's connections to slavery and the mistreatment of Native Americans, with several news sources publishing opinion pieces calling for the statue's removal. During the George Floyd protests in 2020, the monument was vandalized several times.
Laura Swing Kemeys was a noted American sculptor animalier. She was the wife of fellow sculptor Edward Kemeys, with whom she collaborated.