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Bull Moose / Henry Merwin Shrady, 1871 - 1922 (Artist)

Essay/Description

This is a reference image scanned from an older transparency.

Gallery Label

The New York dealer, jeweler and gem expert, Theodore B. Starr, bought the copyrights for Shrady’s Bull Moose and Buffalo (0827.134) and sold the small bronzes in his sumptuous shop. In the window on Fifth Avenue facing Madison Square they were noticed by an important passer-by, Karl Bitter, the director of sculpture for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. He invited Shrady to recreate the animals for the fairgrounds. Over six weeks Shrady enlarged the moose to nine feet and the buffalo to eight feet. Four pairs were produced in a mixture of plaster and wood fiber to decorate the fairground and this exposure undoubtedly spurred sales of the small works, which were probably produced in large numbers. Shrady earned a royalty from each one sold at the shop.

From the exhibition:Frontier to Foundry: the Making of Small Bronze Sculpture in the Gilcrease Collection, December 2014 - March 2015.
Ann Boulton Young, Associate Conservator for the Gilcrease Museum, 2014.

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Title(s): 
Bull Moose
Creator(s): 
Henry Merwin Shrady, 1871 - 1922 (Artist)
Culture: 
American
Date: 
modeled 1900; lost-wax cast 20th century
Materials/Techniques: 
lost-wax cast in bronze
Classification: 
Object Type: 
Accession No: 
08.133
Previous Number(s): 
0827.133; 37304
Department: 
Not On View

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