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The Hispanic Society CourtyardBy Benjamin Swetland The largest installation of public sculptures by Anna Hyatt Huntington is in the courtyard of the Hispanic Society of America, located at Audubon Terrace at 155th Street and Broadway in New York. The seventeen sculptures in bronze and limestone vary in scale from small to monumental and are arranged to complement the mission of the institution they adorn as well as the Beaux-Arts architecture of the terrace. This grand installation stands today as not only a monument to Spanish culture, but as a window into the life of the woman who crafted it. It represents the convergence of Anna Hyatt Huntington’s artistic vision, creative ambition, and personal story. The courtyard developed alongside her relationship with her future-husband, Archer Milton Huntington. In 1921 the wealthy scholar, poet, philanthropist, and founder of Hispanic Society of America, first commissioned a medal from Anna Vaughn Hyatt. That commission was followed by another, and before long Anna Vaughn Hyatt and Archer Milton Huntington began envisioning a sculptural program for the courtyard in front of the Hispanic Society of America, his museum and library devoted to Iberian civilization. On March 10, 1923 they were married and she became Anna Hyatt Huntington. She and Archer shared a very collaborative relationship, which is reflected in the courtyard. Her dual relationship with Archer, as both his wife and artist-in-residence, meant that she had the unflagging support of her husband to fulfill her vision, and a blank check to actualize it. The courtyard project became the exclusive focus of her attention for nearly a decade, and would not be completed until 1943—more than 20 years after planning had begun. Her devotion to the project was so strong that she stopped accepting other commissions.1 It took several years for the subject and formation of the sculptures to be settled, but by 1925 it was decided that the courtyard would be arranged around a central equestrian monument.2 That sculpture would be encircled by four life sized bronze warriors, and centered between two fountains and two flagpoles, all connected by a continuous stone base. The plan grew to include a surrounding menagerie of animal sculptures, including lions flanking the entrance to the museum, and two large reliefs for the wing walls of the North Building. Letters to her mother in 1925 suggest that she had initially intended “2 low groups”3 for the fountains and a “small equestrian”4 to be part of the central scheme as well, but those components were not seen through to completion. In August of 1927, El Cid Campeador was erected. This imposing equestrian monument to the storied Castilian warrior, raising a flag above his head with grim determination, looms over the compressed space of the courtyard. Etched into its pedestal is a sonnet by Archer Huntington, a gesture that pairs the artistic achievements of wife and husband. Four Warriors, life-size heroic male nudes with swords and shields, were installed around the base of El Cid several months later.5 Although the centerpiece of the courtyard was then completed, the sculptures were unveiled without fanfare because the courtyard was still under construction and the program was far from completion.6 Twelve sculptures remained to be finished and installed. Anna Hyatt Huntington was diagnosed with tuberculosis in July of 1927, which slowed progress on those remaining sculptures. It became increasingly necessary for her to spend time outside of New York City in search of fresh air and rest. Ignoring her doctor’s advice to relax, she brought her sculptural projects with her to their country estates. Specifically, the two bronze flagpole bases, the ultimately unused decorative plaques for their pedestals, and the panels for a never-installed bronze door to the Hispanic Society are products of this period. The flagpole bases, which are heavily populated with figures in battle and religious poses, were installed in 1928. Even though all of the men represented in the courtyard are historical and literary figures of the Middle Ages, only the flagpole bases, decorative plaques, and door panels are executed in a medievalized style. Of these, only the flagpole bases were installed, and they stand in contrast to the classical aesthetic of the sculptures around them. The works she never used in the courtyard also portray Spanish historical figures with this quasi-historical aesthetic. For example, all but two of the unused portrait plaques depict important Iberian figures of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They are based on Spanish artworks, most of which are located in Burgos, Spain.7 These referents suggest that her husband likely collaborated with her in choosing their content, because he had traveled there and written about it at length in A Note-Book in Northern Spain in 1898. Eight animal sculptures surround the central grouping of the courtyard. The first animal sculpture to be installed was the Red Stag. Two casts were placed at the base of the courtyard steps in 1930.8 The east stag was eventually swapped out for a companion sculpture, Red Doe and Fawn. The Doe was modeled years earlier, but not finished until 1934 and not installed until 1935.9 These two sculptures are of domesticated deer that she and Archer kept at Camp Arbutus, their estate in the Adirondacks. She was extremely fond of the animals they kept there and wrote often to her mother with lengthy descriptions of the health and activity of the deer.10 An advantage of large country estates to an artist is the ability to keep numerous and unusual animals as models. She kept bears at Rocas, their home in Connecticut, for instance.11 Anna Hyatt Huntington also had the prestige necessary to borrow animals from the Bronx Zoo, such as the doe selected as a mate for the stag.12 Her relationship with the zoo even extended to borrowing a pair of antlers to study for the stag sculpture.13 Two limestone lions were added to flank the entrance of the museum in 1930.14 Four plinths along the north of the courtyard are adorned with animal sculptures as well. The limestone Vulture, Brown Bear, and Jaguar groups were added in 1936, and the Wild Boar group was installed several months later in 1937.15 As these dates suggest, Anna Hyatt Huntington continued work through the Great Depression. She was able to do this because of her wealth and the freedom she had within this particular commission. She acknowledged her luck in this regard when she wrote in a letter to her sister “it makes me shiver a little when I think of where I might be if I had not met Archer. At the time I was getting on awfully well but so were all the other sculptors, the same men today are almost all without work to even the best known ones”.16 Many casts were installed at other Huntington-related institutions around the country, while others were reproduced in bronze and aluminum to be circulated in a traveling exhibition beginning in 1937.17 The final additions to the courtyard were two monumental, equestrian, limestone reliefs on the wing walls of the Hispanic Society’s North Building. Installed in 1942, Don Quixote portrays the tragicomic hero of Cervantes’ epic novel. Installed in 1943, Boabdil conforms to traditional portrayals of the last Moorish king of Grenada taking his last look over his shoulder as he leaves in defeat.18 The walls on which they are carved are decorative extensions of the architecture that serve to enclose the courtyard from 156th Street. A verse of Archer Huntington’s poetry is carved below each relief, demonstrating that more than twenty years after the project began their marriage remained as collaborative as it had been when their arts first complemented each other on the pedestal of El Cid. The sculptural program of the Hispanic Society does more than celebrate the cultures of Iberia, it exists as a testament to the remarkable life of the artist behind it. From her artistic skill to her fairytale marriage, and from her love of animals to her stubborn dedication to her art, the bronze and limestone tell an important part of Anna Hyatt Huntington’s story. Footnotes1 Anna Hyatt Huntington to Audella Beebe Hyatt, 20 March, 1925. The Hispanic Society of America archives. Back2 Doris E. Cook. Woman Sculptor:Anna Hyatt Huntington (Hartford, Connecticut:1976), 7. Back3 Anna Hyatt Huntington to Audella Beebe Hyatt, Mid- April, 1925. The Hispanic Society of America archives. Back4 Anna Hyatt Huntington to Audella Beebe Hyatt, 20 March, 1925. The Hispanic Society of America archives. Back5 Anna Hyatt Huntington to Audella Beebe Hyatt, 8 November, 1927. The Hispanic Society of America archives. Back5 Anna Hyatt Huntington to Audella Beebe Hyatt, 19 August, 1927. The Hispanic Society of America archives. Back7 Object files for the plaques in Hispanic Society records list the specific referents for each plaque. Anna (Vaughn) Hyatt Huntington Object Files, D1018–D1025. The Hispanic Society of America. Back8 AHH mentions in passing that there were two stags installed in the courtyard. Anna Hyatt Huntington to Audella Beebe Hyatt, 25 May, 1930. The Hispanic Society of America archives. Back9 Doris E. Cook. Woman Sculptor:Anna Hyatt Huntington (Hartford, Connecticut:1976), 11 . Back10 Letters she wrote in August 1928 mentions the stag and doe very often. Anna Hyatt Huntington to Audella Beebe Hyatt, August, 1928. The Hispanic Society of America archives. Back11 Doris E. Cook. Woman Sculptor:Anna Hyatt Huntington (Hartford, Connecticut:1976), 10. Back12 Anna Hyatt Huntington to Audella Beebe Hyatt, August, 1928. The Hispanic Society of America archives. Back13 Anna Hyatt Huntington to Audella Beebe Hyatt, 13 July, 1929. The Hispanic Society of America archives. Back14 Some sources suggest the lions were originally cast in bronze. However, Hispanic Society records indicate the limestone lions were acquired in 1930, the same year they were installed. Anna (Vaughn) Hyatt Huntington Object Files, D360–D361. The Hispanic Society of America. Back15 Anna (Vaughn) Hyatt Huntington Object Files, D356–D359. The Hispanic Society of America. Back16 Anna Hyatt Huntington to Harriet Randolph Hyatt, 8 January, 1933. The Hispanic Society of America archives. Back17 Doris E. Cook. Woman Sculptor:Anna Hyatt Huntington (Hartford, Connecticut:1976), 11 . Back18 Anna Hyatt Huntington’s composition is similar to others of the same subject. For example, Alfred Dehodencq’s 1869 painting The Farewell of King Boabdil at Granada. Alfred Dehodencq. Les Adieux de Boabdil à Grenade. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. 1869. Back |