New to the Archives: The Torch Bearers

Earlier this week, the Library received a great new gift from the Museum's Director Bill Hennessey for the archives. It is a picture of artist Anna Hyatt Huntington putting the final touches on her remarkable sculpture titled "The Torch Bearers." This statue graces the front entrance of the Chrysler Museum and acts as a preview to some of the extraordinary works of art inside.




Anna Hyatt Huntington was a prolific American artist who was especially known for her animal and equestrian sculptures. She was one of the very few females to work in the heroic style. In fact, her classically-inspired work usually ran counter to the developments in 20th-century American Art. Two-hundred museums in American contain her work, and she has several pieces in Spain, France, and South America.
 
"The Torch Bearers" was one of Huntington's most ambitious multi-figure works. Her wealthy, philanthropist husband, Archer Huntington, collaborated on this piece with her by writing a poem with the same title that was inscribed on it's base. The first cast of the sculpture was given to the University of Madrid in 1955. A year later, she offered another cast to the city of Norfolk, to be installed in the plaza facing the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, which is now the Chrysler Museum of Art.

The Chrysler Museum has a long history of influential and special individuals who have helped turn the Museum into what it is today. This picture may remind us of those individuals and their efforts to keep the artistic spirit of Norfolk alive and thriving.

Want to read more about Anna Hyatt Huntington?
Come to the Library!



 

Written by,

Rebecca Wilkinson

Library Assistant