Edward Kemeys (January 31, 1843 – May 11, 1907) was an American sculptor and considered America's first

animalier An animalier (, ) is an artist, mainly from the 19th century, who specializes in, or is known for, skill in the realistic portrayal of animals. "Animal painter" is the more general term for earlier artists. Although the work may be in any genre ...

. He is best known for his sculptures of animals, particularly the two bronze lions that mark the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago Building in

Chicago Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Kemeys was also a captain in the 4th United States Colored Heavy Artillery, Company H, writer, lecturer, and adventurer in the Western United States.

Life

Kemeys was born on January 31, 1843, in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

.. to Abby Greene of Providence, Rhode Island, and William Kemeys of Scarborough, New York. The Kemeys family lived in Savannah, GA, moving back to New York after the death of his mother in 1843. Kemeys first worked in the iron business of New York City at age seventeen. Civil War When the Civil War broke out, Kemeys enlisted. He was 19. Kemeys volunteered for the 65th Volunteer Regiment of the State of New York. "I served in the Peninsula campaign till I fell sick of fever and was discharged. I went in again later as a second lieutenant." Kemeys re-enlisted as a commissioned officer in the 4th United States Colored Heavy Artillery, Company H attaining the rank of captain. He resigned his commission in 1866. After the Civil War He studied in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and then

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. In Paris, he was impressed by the style of

Antoine-Louis Barye Antoine-Louis Barye (24 September 179525 June 1875) was a Romantic French sculptor most famous for his work as an ''animalier'', a sculptor of animals. His son and student was the known sculptor Alfred Barye. Biography Born in Paris, France, Ba ...

, although in no sense an imitator. He made a specialty of the wild animals of the American continent. His “Fight between Buffalo and Wolves” attracted much attention at the Paris Salon in 1878. Among his other important works are “Panther and Deer,” and “Coyote and Raven.” A colossal head of a buffalo for the facade of the station of the Pacific railroad at

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, which was cast in bronze in New York in August, 1887, was the largest work of its kind that had been done in the United States. Another bronze statue of a panther named "Still Hunt," is permanently situated on a rock flanking the East Drive of New York City's Central Park. Kemeys died in

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, on May 11, 1907. He and his wife, Laura Kemeys, are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Gallery

File:Hudson Wolves Kemeys.JPG, ''Hudson Bay Wolves'', 1873, in

Philadelphia Zoo The Philadelphia Zoo, located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, is the first true zoo in the United States. It was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859, but its openin ...

. File:Panther and Cubs Kemeys 01.jpg, ''Panther and Cubs'', c. 1878,

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. File:Prayer for Rain CU IL.JPG, ''Prayer for Rain'', c. 1899, in West Side Park,

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metro ...

. File:Edward Kemeys' Bronze Bison Sculpture, Humboldt Park Formal Garden, Chicago.jpg, Bronze Bison Sculpture, Humboldt Park Formal Garden, Chicago. File:Memorial Exhibition of the Works in Sculpture by the Late Edward Kemeys (2).jp
Installation view of the ''Memorial Exhibition of the Works in Sculpture by the Late Edward Kemeys'', Corcoran Gallery of Art, December 15-26, 1907, gelatin silver print
File:Memorial Exhibition of the Works in Sculpture by the Late Edward Kemeys (1).jp
Installation view of the ''Memorial Exhibition of the Works in Sculpture by the Late Edward Kemeys'', Corcoran Gallery of Art, December 15-26, 1907, gelatin silver print
File:Art Institute of Chicago Lion Statue (2-D).jpg, North lion at the Art Institute of Chicago, pose informally designated by Kemeys as "on the prowl." Bronze, 1893.

References

Furth reading

External links

''Bronze Gallery'' biographySmithsonian American Art Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kemeys, Edward L. 1843 births 1907 deaths People from Savannah, Georgia Artists from Georgia (U.S. state) Animal artists 19th-century American sculptors 19th-century American painters 19th-century male artists 20th-century American painters 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century male artists