Evening star., 1938-03-06
By Leila Meckliu.

TIME exhibition of sculpture by
Anna Hyatt Huntington which
opened in the Corcoran GAL
lery of Art yesterday afternoon
with preview is one of the most
notable Of the season, if not of many
seasons. 1t is seldom that one is
provlleged to see so comprehensive a
collection of any one artists work,
especially in the field of sculpture.
Mrs. Huntington is best known as a
sculptor of animals, than which there
is none better today. or for that mat
ter in the past But her work is not
limited to this class. Her figures. such
as the Diana of the Chase and her
portraits, as for example, that of her
mother. both included in this exhibit
ton, are outstanding as artistic
achievements. Furthermore, she is one
of the few women who has success
fully essayed the equestrian statue.
Every one knows her Joan of Arc and
her Cid, the one at Blois, the other
at Seville. which long since have been
given place among the great equeS-
trians Of all time-and rightly. Re-
auctions of both these famous
works are happily included in the
Corcoran Gallery display But the
world at large is less we'll acquainted
with Mrs. Huntington's work than it
should be, because she has been more
interested in production than exhbi-
ton, has worked alone with concen-
tration of interest and effort, and has,
perhaps. modestly underestimated the
value and Importance of her own
achievement.
In 1880 Mrs. Huntington was
awarded the Gold Medal of Honor of
the American Academy of Arts and
Letters and she is the only woman
sculptor who has been elected to
membership In that organization.
France, in 1922. made her Chevslier
of the Legion of Honor and in 1888
elected her an officer. BY Spain she
has been honored with the Grand
Cross of Alfonso XII, and the city
Of Blois. France, has given her citizen
ship.
To revert to her sculpture of ami
mails. Royal Cortissoz prefaces his
foreword to the catalogue of the cur
rent exhibition by the following QUO
tstion from Blake:
"T1ger. tiger burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry"
"These famous lines he says ''em-
body challenge to the sculptor who
occupies himself with the portrayal of
animals. They point to an artistic
problem of peculiar difficulty. For the
animal. especially the wild animal. is
70 much more than ponderable sub
ject for the observation of the realistic
It is at once thing of anatomy and
thing of mystery. We say of an ac-
complished animalier that he has in
terpreted the character of a great
beast. We mean by that much more
than his accuracy in representing the
form and the movement of the mode.
We are conscious, when he succeeds,
not only of the efficacy of hand or
eye but of the depth of his imagina-
tive insight. 1t is only when he has
that resource, as master like Barge
had 1t. when naturalistic skill is tinc-
tured by instructive sympathy, that his
work carries conviction.
Mrs Huntington has in her art" he
adds, this dual power. Her animals
come alive in their quiddity. They do
40 because they are not snapshots, but
works of art, because they speak not
only of fidelity to nature, but of artis-
tic divination. Among these re-
condite things, imperceptible to the
layman, Mrs. Huntington moves with
authority, daring to frame the fearful
symmetry of her battling types-not
simply because she knows animals In
the familiar phrase. but because she
knows them as only an artist can"
Mrs. Huntington's range is wide In
this exhibition are shown in sculpture
tigers. jaguars, elephants, n.ynkeys,
wild boars, bears, lions, zebras and other
wild creatures Of the forest, jungle and
plain, but also the gentler domestic
animals, such as goats, dogs, horses,
colts, donkeys, deer and their young.
She is, one can see at glance, lover
as well as q keen observer of animals.
This with her was an inherited in
stinct. Her father, the late Alpheus
Hyatt, was an eminent paleontologist
and . professor Of zoology at Harvard.
Before she learned her letters" one
Of her biographers states, "she took de-
light In watching live creatures and In
shaping their likeness in clay" But
she did not turn to sculpture as
career until after her Goth birthday
had passed. BY then her sister, Harriet
Hyatt (Mrs. Mayor, had attained to
considerable note as sculptor. The
technique of modelling in clay has long
since become to her familiar At first
she studied with Kitson in Boston,
then with MacNeil in New York.
Later, when she and Harriet Frismuth
took a studio in New York, Gutzon
Borglum, just back from Europe and
filled with zeal and artistic convictions,
gave occasional criticisms with the
utmost professional generosity. In
1907 Anna Hyatt went abroad. not to
enter an academy or become the pupil
Of some great master. but with eyes
wide open and a determination to see
and to learn. Already she had won