Anna Hyatt Huntington, The Passing of the Torch
1953, aluminum
Gift of Mr. Ogden Phipps
Collection of The Society of the Four Arts, 1970.27
Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876–1973), who was among New York City’s most prominent sculptors in the early 20th century, was famous for her equestrian sculptures that combine vivid realism and emotional depth. The Passing of the Torch, made when the artist was in her late 70s, represents the passing of knowledge from one generation to the next as a dying man passes a torch—a symbol of knowledge—to a young man on a powerful stallion. Huntington cast this dynamic sculpture in aluminum, a lightweight material she began using in the early 1940s.