Edward Kemeys

North lion at the Art Institute of Chicago, pose informally designated by Kemeys as "on the prowl." Bronze, 1893.( 3D image available)

Edward L. Kemeys (January 31, 1843 – May 11, 1907) was an American sculptor.^[1] He is best known for his sculptures of animals, particularly the two bronze lions that mark the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago Illinois.^[2]

Life

Kemeys was born on January 31, 1843 in Savannah, Georgia.^[3] He studied in New York City and then Paris. In Paris, he was impressed by the style of Antoine-Louis Barye, although in no sense an imitator. He made a specialty of the wild animals of the American continent. His “Fight between Buffalo and Wolves” attracted much attention at the Paris salon in 1878. Among his other important works are “Panther and Deer,” and “Coyote and Raven.” A colossal head of a buffalo for the facade of the station of the Pacific railroad at St. Louis, Missouri, which was cast in bronze in New York in August, 1887, was the largest work of its kind that had been done in the United States. Another bronze statue of a panther named "Still Hunt," is permanently situated on a rock flanking the East Drive of New York City's Central Park.

Kemeys died in Washington, D.C. on May 11, 1907.^[3]

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  Hudson Bay Wolves, 1873, in Philadelphia Zoo.

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  Panther and Cubs, c. 1878, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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  Prayer for Rain, c. 1899, in West Side Park, Champaign, Illinois.

Notes

References

•  Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1892). "Kemeys, Edward". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edward Kemeys.

• Bronze Gallery biography