Biography
Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (March 10, 1876 – October 4, 1973) was an American sculptor who was among New York City’s most prominent sculptors in the early 20th century. At a time when very few women were successful artists, she had a thriving career. Hyatt Huntington exhibited often, traveled widely, received critical acclaim at home and abroad, and won multiple awards and commissions.
During the first two decades of the 20th century, Hyatt Huntington became famous for her animal sculptures, which combine vivid emotional depth with skillful realism. In 1915, she created the first public monument by a woman to be erected in New York City. Her Joan of Arc, located on Riverside Drive at 93rd Street, is the city’s first monument dedicated to a historical woman.
Huntington was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 10, 1876. She was the daughter of Audella Beebe and Alpheus Hyatt, a professor of paleontology and zoology at Harvard University and MIT. Her father encouraged her early interest in animals and animal anatomy. Anna Hyatt first studied with Henry Hudson Kitson in Boston. However, he dismissed her after she identified equine anatomical inaccuracies in his work. Later she studied with Hermon Atkins MacNeil and Gutzon Borglum at the Art Students League of New York. In addition to these formal studies, she spent many hours making extensive study of animals in various zoos (including the Bronx Zoo) and circuses.
Her work was entered in the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics. In 1932, Huntington became one of the earliest woman artists to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held in the summer of 1949 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Huntington married Archer Milton Huntington on March 10, 1923. They founded Brookgreen Gardens near Georgetown, South Carolina, incorporating Brookgreen Plantation. This property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and designated as a National Historic Landmark District in 1992.
Hyatt Huntington was a member of the National Academy of Design and the National Sculpture Society. She and her husband donated $100,000 to underwrite the NSS Exhibition of 1929. Because of her husband’s enormous wealth and the shared interests of the couple, the Huntingtons founded fourteen museums and four wildlife preserves. They also donated the land for the Collis P. Huntington State Park to the State of Connecticut. It consists of approximately 800 acres (3.2 km2) of land in Redding, Connecticut, the town where they lived.
Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington died October 4, 1973, in Redding, Connecticut. She is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York City. Her papers are held at Syracuse University, and the Archives of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art ranks Huntington as among the foremost woman sculptors in the United States to have undertaken large, publicly commissioned works, alongside Malvina Hoffman and Evelyn Beatrice Longman.
Nationality:
American
Dates:
March 10, 1876 – October 4, 1973
Occupation:
Sculptor
Schools attended:
Art Students League
Taught at:
Student of:
Hermon Atkins MacNeil, Gutzon Borglum, Henry Hudson Kitson
Teacher of:
Group / Movement:
Brookgreen Gardens, National Sculpture Society