Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington

(1876-1973)

Yawning Tiger 4 in. (10.2 cm.) high, on a 1 in. (2.5 cm.) high black marble base

Footnotes

Provenance
Dr. Marvin Reingold (b. 1930) and Eileen Reingold (1935-2019), Melville, New York and Delray Beach, Florida.
Sale, Rago Arts and Auction, Lambertville, New Jersey, May 20, 2007, lot 1357, sold by the above.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature
The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, Catalogue of the Eleventh Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, exhibition catalogue, Buffalo, New York, 1917, pp. 19, 74, 77, no. 42, another example illustrated.
Gorham Company, Bronze Division, Bronze Division Papers: Casting Records of Statuary and Small Bronzes Owned by Gorham, Q Numbers Assigned to Bronzes, 1905-1970, New York, 1917, p. 27, no. Q492, another example listed. (as Tiger Stretching)
Gorham Company, Bronze Division, Bronze Division Papers: Photograph Files of Statuary and Small Bronzes, New York, 1917, n.p., no. Q492, another example illustrated. (as Tiger)
J.C. Glasier, "Stories of Early Days Center About Portraits on Exhibition at Museum," Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 20, 1919, 75th Year, no. 201, p. 10, another example listed.
"The Newark Museum," The American Magazine of Art, March 1927, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 154-55, another example illustrated.
The Gorham Company, Famous Small Bronzes, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1928, pp. 14-15, another example illustrated.
Gorham Company, Bronze Division, Bronze Division Papers: Records of Royalties Paid to Sculptors for Casting Their Works, New York, 1929, n.p., no. 253. (as Stretching Tiger)
L. Mechlin, "Notes of Art and Artists: Washington Bicentennial Exhibition at the National Museum-Juries Selected for the Olympic Games Competition-Other Notes of Art.," The Sunday Star, March 27, 1932, no. 1,410, no. 32,107, p. 14, another example listed.
M.P. Hull, "Joslyn Memorial to Receive Five Statues From the Famous Huntington Collection," The Omaha Bee-News, August 22, 1937, vol. 67, no. 10, n.p., another example illustrated.
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Exhibition of Sculpture by Anna Hyatt Huntington, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C., 1938, n.p., no. 15, another example listed.
L. Mechlin, "Huntington Sculpture Is Received by Gallery: Corcoran Gift Appreciated As Distinguished Addition To Washington Art Works," The Sunday Star, August 27, 1939, no. 1,797, no. 34,816, p. F-5, another example listed.
M.G. Eden, Energy and Individuality in the Art of Anna Huntington, Sculptor and Amy Beach, Composer, Metuchen, New Jersey, 1987, no. 203, p. 247, another example listed.
J. Conner, J. Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893-1939, Austin, Texas, 1989, pp. 76, 78, 191, another example illustrated.
D. Grimm, "Anna Hyatt Huntington: A Member of the East Coast Establishment Develops a Presence in the Far West," Sculpture Review, Fall 1994, vol. XLIII, no. 3, p. 14, another example illustrated.
"Reingold Collection Sale Revives American Sculpture Market," Antiques and The Arts Weekly, July 13, 2007, p. 38.
L. Blackman, ed., S. Yount, M.R. Severens, D.C. Pollack, E. Terrono, K.T. Klacsmann, E.R. Corrales-Diaz, D. Belasco, Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection, exhibition catalogue, Columbia, South Carolina, 2018, pp. 94, 95, 245, another example illustrated.

There are 359 versions of Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington's Yawning Tiger of this size, including the present work numbered 253, cast by Gorham Manufacturing Company, Bronze Division between 1917 and 1948.

Anna Hyatt Huntington's Yawning Tiger is one of the artist's most recognizable sculptures which demonstrates her keen knowledge of feline anatomy and astute powers of observation. Huntington's interest in modeling animal figures began at an early age following the example of her older sister, Harriet Randolph Hyatt Mayor (1868-1960), who was also a sculptor. She was inspired by the numerous field trips she made with her father, Alpheus Hyatt (1838-1902), a respected professor of paleontology and zoology at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1902, Huntington moved to New York to study for a brief time at the Art Students League where she was instructed by Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941) and befriended fellow student and female sculptor, Abastenia St. Leger Eberle (1878-1942). Huntington also spent a great deal of time at the Bronx Zoo modeling the big cats and other exotic animals. The jaguars, tigers, and lions housed at the Bronx Zoo served as an impetus for her work for years to come and are likely the source of inspiration for Yawning Tiger. In Yawning Tiger, Huntington elegantly captures in minimal detail the Tiger's front and back paws reaching outward with claws extended as the mouth opens to it's widest point in the climax of the yawn and the tail lifts upward.