Artwork Details
- Title
- Lioness Carrying to Her Young a Wild Boar
- Artist
- Auguste Cain (1822 – 1894)
- Year
- 1886, relocated 1951
- Medium
- Bronze, on granite base
- Dimensions
- Height 7'6", width 3'10", depth 12'5" (base height 3', width 5'7", depth 13')
Artwork Description
*Please note that zoo admission (fee) is required to view this sculpture
Auguste Cain was born in Paris, and his work followed in the tradition of artist Antoine-Louis Barye. The Lioness was exhibited in the French Salon of 1886 before its acquisition by Association for Public Art (then known as the Fairmount Park Art Association).
Before its installation at the Philadelphia Zoo, the Lioness had been moved twice. It was relocated to the foot of Lemon Hill from its original site on the river drive because, a contemporary newspaper said, its “realistic pose . . . terrified many horses, that in other respects were fearless.”
Content on this page was adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Bach was the longtime Executive Director of the Association for Public Art, working with the organization from 1980 to 2022.
Artwork Credits
Purchased by Association for Public Art (formerly the Fairmount Park Art Association)
Owned by the Zoological Society of Philadelphia