Detail View: The AMICA Library: Stalking Panther

AMICA ID: 
MMA_.1996.561
AMICA Library Year: 
2000
Object Type: 
Sculpture
Creator Name: 
Proctor, Alexander Phimister
Creator Role: 
Artist
Creator Dates/Places: 
1862-1950
Creator Name-CRT: 
Alexander Phimister Proctor
Title: 
Stalking Panther
View: 
Full View
Creation Date: 
1891-1892, revised mid-1890s; this cast, ca. 1914-1917 (?)
Creation Start Date: 
1891
Creation End Date: 
1892
Materials and Techniques: 
Bronze
Dimensions: 
9 1/2 x 37 1/2 x 6 1/4 in. (24.1 x 95.3 x 15.9 cm)
AMICA Contributor: 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Owner Location: 
New York, New York, USA
ID Number: 
1996.561
Credit Line: 
Purchase, William Cullen Bryant Fellows Gifts and Maria DeWitt Jesup Fund, 1996
Rights: 
Context: 

Proctor based an early version of 'Stalking Panther' on childhood observations in Colorado, studies of panthers in New York's Central Park Zoo, and dissections of cats and cougars. Exhibited at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, the statuette was shown the following year at the Society of American Artists in New York. In 1894, Proctor went to Paris and brought along a plaster cast of 'Stalking Panther' in order to continue refining the composition. Using a shaved cat for anatomical reference, he completed the second version and had it cast in bronze. The Metropolitan's statuette is presumed to be from this second version. The work is more than an anatomical assessment of an elongated cat in mid-stride; the piece is a psychologically engaging study of predatory motion toward an unseen prey, reflecting the artist's interest in depicting animals as forces of uncivilized nature.

Related Image Identifier Link: 
MMA_.ap1996.561.R.tif