The Lion Fighter (1858, cast 1892)

by Albert Wolff (1814 - 1892)

Photo Caption: Photo Caitlin Martin © 2010 for the Association for Public Art
  • Title

    The Lion Fighter

  • Artist

    Albert Wolff (1814 - 1892)

  • Year

    1858; cast 1892; relocated 1929

  • Location

    Philadelphia Museum of Art at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway

  • Medium

    Bronze, on limestone base

  • Dimensions

    Height 14′, width 14'1", depth 8'4" (base height 17′, width 13'9 1/2", depth 10'2 1/2")

  • Themes

    Equestrian Sculpture, The Animal Kingdom

Commissioned by the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art)

Owned by the City of Philadelphia


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At A Glance

  • Cast locally by the Bureau Brothers in 1892 for exhibition at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago

  • Originally installed on a “jutting rock” on East River Drive (now Kelly Drive)

The original Lion Fighter sits as a companion piece to August Kiss’s Mounted Amazon Attacked by a Panther on the steps of the Altes Museum in Berlin. The Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art) purchased the original plaster cast for The Lion Fighter in 1889 and placed it in Memorial Hall for public viewing, along with a plaster version of the Amazon. This bronze was cast locally by the Bureau Brothers in 1892 for exhibition at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. When returned to Philadelphia, it was installed on a “jutting rock” on East River Drive. It was moved to the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1929, where – as in Berlin – it accompanies a bronze cast of the Amazon.

Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1992).

Voices heard in the Museum Without Walls: AUDIO program: Ann Kuttner is professor of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan art at the University of Pennsylvania. Judith Schaechter is a Philadelphia-based artist who works primarily in the museum of stained glass. Thayer Tolles is Associate Curator of American Sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. | Segment Producer: Ben Shapiro

Museum Without Walls: AUDIO is the Association for Public Art’s award-winning audio program for Philadelphia’s outdoor sculpture. Available for free by phone, mobile app, or online, the program features more than 150 voices from all walks of life – artists, educators, civic leaders, historians, and those with personal connections to the artworks.

 

RESOURCES:

This artwork is part of the Along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway tour, and the Around the Philadelphia Museum of Art tour.

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