Lions, 1893 (recast in bronze 1894)
Edward Kemeys
West entrance of the Art
Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
at Adams Street
Part of more than thirty-five plaster models of native
American wildlife produced by Edward Kemeys (1843-1907) and A. P. Proctor for
the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the plaster versions of these
lions originally flanked the entrance to the Fine Arts Palace (now the Museum
of Science and Industry). Bronze recastings of Kemeys’ two Bison from the Exposition are featured at the east entrance to the
formal garden at Humboldt Park.
After viewing the Lions
at the 1893 Fair, Mrs. Henry Field
donated funds to have them recast in bronze and installed at the entrance to
the Art Institute of Chicago building in Grant Park. Serving as both a
sensitive portrayal of wild animals and an example of guardian figures, in the
tradition of Assyrian lamassu and the
Egyptian Sphinx, these lions are
among the best-known and most-beloved sculptures in the city. Kemeys, as reported
in the Chicago Tribune, explained
that the south lion was “attracted by something in the distance which he is
closely watching” and that the north lion was “ready for a roar and a spring.”
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