Yawning Tiger

Although she received little formal art instruction, Anna Hyatt Huntington emerged as one of the most accomplished sculptors of the era and established the nation’s first public sculpture park at Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina. The Bronx Zoo’s jaguars, tigers, and lions served as a catalyst for Huntington’s work for decades, and her careful study of powerful feline anatomy found repeated expression, as evidenced by Yawning Tiger. Modeled in 1917, this popular subject was created in two sizes, this example being the larger version. The languorous, sinewy cat—portrayed on its stomach in mid-stretch with tail lifted—is yawning broadly. Here, Huntington conveys the animal’s spirit with minimal detail, a trademark of her oeuvre.