PART 2: The place with the big lions out in front

PART 1 of this article presents two lines of evidence refuting the common claim that the lion sculptures by Edward Kemeys that stand in front of the Art Institute of Chicago were cast from sculptures at the 1893 World’s Fair. The preponderance of evidence shows that two sets of lion sculptures that stood outside the Palace of Fine Arts on the fairgrounds of the Columbian Exposition were authored by A. Phimister Proctor and Theodore Baur, not Kemeys. Part 2 summarizes Edward Kemeys’ 1893 commission for the Art Institute lions and explores connections to his work on other animal sculptures for the Fair.

Edward Kemeys’ commission

“The Art Institute? Our beautiful Art Institute on Michigan Avenue? Do you mean to say you have never visited it?”

“Oh, is it the place with the big lions out in front? I remember; I saw it when I went to Montgomery Ward’s. Yes, I thought the lions were beautiful.”
—from The Song of the Lark (1915) by Willa Cather

The history of Edward Kemeys’ commission to design a pair of bronze lions for the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) is well documented by Clarke, Jones, and early reports of the Museum trustees. Initial plans for the proposed AIC building by the Boston architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, included a pair of lions on pedestals to ornament the Michigan Avenue entrance (Figure 16).

Charles L. Hutchinson, founder and long-time president of the Art Institute of Chicago, proposed that two bronze lions be commissioned to flank the entrance to the museum. Mrs. Henry Field (Florence Lathrop Field) offered to cover the cost of this project on the condition that the lions be designed by Edward Kemeys, whom her husband admired and knew personally. [“A Committee of Two” 48]

In the summer of 1892, Mrs. Field’s brother, AIC trustee Bryan Lathrop, approached Kemeys—who at that time was working on his set of temporary sculptures for the World’s Columbian Exposition (WCE)—about the possible commission. Lathrop wrote to the AIC Board in September of 1892: “I have a very strong conviction that there is no other animal sculptor in this country at all to be compared with Kemeys.” Although Hutchinson apparently had another artist in mind, Kemeys received the commission. [Funigiello 36]

Although one scholar has written that “it must be assumed that shortly thereafter Kemeys was contracted to prepare the Lions,” the announcement of the commission and news reports on Kemeys indicate that he worked on the AIC lions later, in 1893. [Richman 114]

On January 1, 1893, the Chicago Tribune announced that Mrs. Field had donated the funds for two bronze lions, “to be modeled” by Edward Kemeys. [“The Fine Arts”] (She also donated of a very significant collection of paintings from her late husband, Henry Field, brother to department store magnate Marshall Field, and these works remain today among the highlights of the galleries.) On January 31, the AIC Board of Trustees approved the commission, and a news story on February 12, 1893, reported that Kemeys was then modeling the two lions. [“About the Studios”]

“The most difficult I have ever attempted”

Kemeys continued working on the AIC commission in the summer of 1893, after the World’s Fair had opened in May. The AIC Board’s Report of June 6, 1893, states that “the order has been given to Mr. Kemeys, and he is at work upon the models, for which the pedestal stand ready.” [Report of the Trustees 5] A profile in the Chicago Inter Ocean in late July confirms that Kemeys was “now engaged” on the lions. “When placed upon the tall granite pedestals in front of the Art institute where they will stand,” the paper commented, “they will occupy a position second to none in prominence, and they will look as though they kept watch not only over the institute but over the length of Michigan avenue.” [“Brush and Palette”]

Artifacts of his 1893 modeling work can be found in literature on Kemeys’ career. His sketches for the lions were exhibited (posthumously) at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in early 1908, and small bronze models were included in a Memorial Exhibition of his works held in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in December 1908. A December 1897 photograph shows the two clay models for his AIC lions in his studio (“Wolfden”). At least one small (8 ¾-by-12-by-3 inch) bronze model survives in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Kemeys reported studying twenty-six lions while sketching and preparing clay models. “I found Forepaugh lions the best,” he said, “they had not been long in captivity and were fierce and full of the animal life I was trying to catch at its best.” [“About the Studios”] (The “Forepaugh” he refers to is the Forepaugh & Sells Brothers circus, not a breed of lion.) About the cat’s poses, Kemeys noted that the north lion “having discovered something which displeases him … has his back up, and is ready for a roar and a spring,” while the south lion is “attracted by something in the distance which he is closely watching.” [“Lions for the Fine Arts Institute”] He also called this sculpture “the most difficult I have ever attempted.”

An art critic in 1894 offered this description of Kemeys’ final bronzes:

“There is an individuality about each, yet each is substantially in the same relative position. The north figure will be seen to be more observant of some object than his companion on the south, and his rising anger may be noticed in the switching and stiffening tail, while what Mr. Kemeys calls the ‘brute’ muscles of the head are more fully modeled and prominent.” [“The Sculptors and Their Work”]

Kemeys’ work for the WCE native animal sculptures had been based on his formative experience in the West. The AIC commission departed from his typical output of depicting American animals in their natural settings. These African lions instead were tied to a tradition of placing such symbolic and allegorical beasts at grand entrances. The artist admitted to wanting different animal subjects for the AIC commission:

“It is doubtless a matter of no small regret to the sculptor that his two most conspicuous pieces, the massive bronze lions which ornament the approaches to the Art Institute, of Chicago, are not representative of the ‘American wilderness.’ Had the choice of a subject for this important place been left to the artist, there is little room to doubt that a shaggy bison and a huge grizzly would now occupy the enviable position preempted by the kings of the old world jungles.” [“Edward Kemeys”]

Imagine—Chicago’s mascots could have been buffalo or bears!

Kemeys signed his AIC lion sculptures with his wolf-head totem and the date 1893 (Figure 20). Sometime before January 1894, Kemeys’ AIC lions were cast by Jules Berchem at the American Bronze Company, located at Seventy-Third Street and Woodlawn Avenue in the Grand Crossing neighborhood of Chicago. [“Where Art Thrives”] The previous spring, Berchem had cast the famous silver statue of Justice displayed in the Montana section of the Mines and Mining Building at the Columbian Exposition. (A memo from 1956 in the archives of the Art Institute indicates that the molder of the Kemeys’ lions was Auguste Griffoul, who cast Rodin’s The Thinker, but the timeline of Griffoul’s activities does not seem compatible with his being in Chicago in 1894. [Wolf])

A profile of Kemeys in 1905 noted that “in 1892 he executed a number of large groups for the Columbian Exposition. This last led very naturally to his commission for the large bronze lions which now guard the entrance of the Chicago Art Institute” [Mechlin xi] This is as close a connection between Kemeys’ work for the 1893 World’s Fair and the Art Institute that is made in contemporary sources.

Lion lineage

More than eighty years later, a paper by Jane H. Clarke cautiously linked Kemeys’ commission for the AIC and his sculptural work for the WCE, writing that “Mrs. Field’s commission for the Art Institute led to the Palace of Fine Arts lions by Kemeys, and that the fair lions, which of necessity had to be finished before the opening on May 1, 1893, became the models for the Art Institute bronzes.” [Clarke 54–55] She bases this on one statement in Rossiter Johnson’s History of the World’s Columbian Exposition Held in Chicago in 1893. [Johnson V2 383], that misattributes the WCE lions on the north side of the Palace of Fine Arts to being authored by Kemeys.

An even more confusing assertion in this paper is that “the large staff … pieces made by Kemeys for the Exposition were used to make the molds for casting the Art Institute’s bronzes,” citing only a telephone conversation with art historian (and Daniel Chester French biographer) Michael Richman. [Clarke 55] As detailed in Part 1 of this article, the lion sculptures on the north side of the WCE Art Palace are identical to those by Proctor at the south entrance and do match the form of Kemeys’ lions for the AIC.

Clarke premises that the “general perception has long been that the Art Institute lions were derived from two lions by Kemeys which stood at the north entrance of the Palace of Fine Arts at the World’s Columbian Exposition … But their lineage is not entirely clear.” Also unclear is how long this general perception actually had existed in 1988. Few sources before then make this claim. The closest found so far is in James L. Riedy’s 1981 monograph Chicago Sculpture, which states that “Edward Kemeys and Theodore Bauer [sic] … modeled the lions guarding the entrances” to the Fine Arts Building at the Fair. [Riedy 38]

But since 1988, this incorrect origin story for the AIC lions has proliferated and now permeates both popular and scholarly descriptions of these iconic sculptures. Citing Clarke’s paper, a 1998 catalog of American Arts published by the Art Institute of Chicago states that Kemeys’ “work at the World’s Fair was admired by Hutchinson and by trustee Bryan Lathrop. The [AIC] board suggested that Kemeys’ heroic-sized, paired lions be cast at the American Art Bronze Foundry [sic] in Chicago.” [Barter 18]

One art historian reads even more into it, highlighting that Frank Millet, in his “Final Report” to Burnham, did not credit Kemeys as the author of the north-side WCE lions. “Why Millet did not report this assignment is not known,” offers David J. Wagner, “but the fact that the molds were made from Kemeys’s lions to cast bronze lions for the Art Institute of Chicago makes the omission pregnant with meaning.” [Wagner 178–79] This author also cites the 1988 paper by Clarke. Rather than considering the simpler explanation that Millet did not attribute the WCE lions to Kemeys because they were not by Kemeys, Wagner further molds the origin story: Millet intentionally placed Kemeys’ work at the secondary entrance to the Art Palace as part of convoluted scheme involving Hutchinson and the AIC lion commission.

Lions on the loose?

The evidence presented above and in Part 1 support the assignment of Proctor and Baur to the two pairs of WCE lions and Kemeys to the pair of AIC lions. But is there another pair of lions unaccounted for?

An intriguing newspaper article from August 1892 notes that “Mr. Kemeys has underway a model for a standing lion to accompany the one already completed.” [“World’s Fair Doings”] (As mentioned above, the AIC lions were not officially commissioned until January 1893.) The article also notes that his clay model of the panther (referred to as a “cougar”) was complete and ready to be molded, and that “he will also execute statues of the buffalo, grizzly bear, and Rocky Mountain sheep or big-horn.” Of these, only the first three native-animal sculptural pairs were installed around the Grand Basin. The mountain goat sculptures, although mentioned here and in some advance guidebooks, did not end up decorating the fairgrounds.

Perhaps Kemeys had been planning to produce a pair of lions (and a pair of sheep) to ornament bridges of the Grand Basin at the Fair, but for some reason did not execute the enlarged works? One hypothesis is that the model of his mountain goat, a photograph of which was published [White 63], had such thin legs that making an enlargement in staff may have been unfeasible. Did some aspect of Kemeys’ lions also prevent a colossal version being made in staff for the Fair? On the fairground waterways, each of Proctor’s animal pairs ended up being repeated in two or more locations, perhaps filling a gap? It is interesting that August 1892, when the lion clay model was in Kemeys’ studio, was around the time that Bryan Lathrop was campaigning for his receiving the AIC lions commission. These 1892 Kemeys lions present a mystery. Are they the models for the Art Institute lions?

Stripped of their unsightly coverings

The new home of the Art Institute of Chicago was constructed for use as a temporary site for the World’s Congress Auxiliary with financial support from the World’s Columbian Exposition corporation. The building required only a few weeks of renovation to prepare its galleries after the Fair closed on October 30, 1893. The new museum officially opened its doors (unguarded by lions) on December 8, welcoming a large crowd into their new home on Michigan Avenue. The two colossal bronze beasts had to wait five more months for their official unveiling. (Since the time of her generous donation to the AIC, Mrs. Henry Field had become Mrs. Thomas Nelson Page and was so named in press reports about the unveiling of “her” lions.)

On the night of May 10, 1894, the magnificent metal monarchs welcomed guests as they entered the Art Institute to attend a reception for Mr. Kemeys and his wife Laura and to view an exhibition of the Architectural Sketch Club. [“See Kemeys’ Lions”] Mrs. Page had requested a ceremony “with as little ostentation as possible.” [“Majestics in Metal”] Nonetheless, the Tribune reported that “an interesting ceremony” took place in front of the Art Institute that night:

“The bronze lions that have for several days stood swathed in covers of dirty canvas were stripped of these unsightly coverings. Calcium lights had been turned on the two lords of the animal kingdom and these unusual sights attracted a good-sized crowd. When all was ready, a couple of institute employees seized the covers and quickly pulled them off the lions. The lights were then turned on and the magnificent works of art were shown up splendidly. Under the light of the lamps the animals had a life-like appearance that was startling. [“Lions Are Set Free”] Newspaper reports on the unveiling of the new AIC lions made no mention of the World’s Fair, still fresh in every Chicagoan’s mind.

Conclusion

In 1893, Julian Hawthorne wrote of his friend Edward Kemeys: “to-day he is beyond question the leading animal sculptor of the world.” [Hawthorne 112] In the years after his lions assumed their silent watch on pedestals in Chicago, his reputation as America’s premier animal sculptor only grew. “Edward Kemeys is the greatest animal sculptor of his time,” wrote Elite magazine in 1896, “a fact we realize with pride each time we pass the magnificent lions.” [“Society Notes”]

Numerous profiles of the “Old Hunter” (his favorite moniker) in his final years and following his death in 1907 describe Kemeys’ oeuvre. [“Chicago and the West”] [Garland] [Hayes 58–59] [Hough] [Mechlin] [“Some of Chicago’s Monuments”] Articles highlight his statuary for the bridges around Grand Basin of the Columbian Exposition and they also praise his pair of bronze beasts in front of the Art Institute. They do not, though, mention any lions he made for the 1893 World’s Fair or describe the AIC lions as bronze castings of earlier works. That account seems to have formed many decades later.

Visitors to the Art Institute today encounter the lions differently than did visitors in 1894. The colossal sculptures have developed a green patina over the years, and they were pulled twelve feet closer to the museum entrance when Michigan Avenue was widened in 1910. These beloved icons of Chicago stand guard in front of one of the few remaining buildings of the 1893 World’s Fair, but they themselves are only distant cousins to the plaster pride that once stood in Jackson Park.

NOTE: Chicago’s great leonine mascots by Edward Kemeys and the sculptors who decorated the White City of 1893 deserve an accurate historical record. We welcome any new information and primary sources that may contribute to revisions of this article. Please contact us. Additions and corrections will be noted.

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