The Horses of Anahita, or The Flight of Night
artistAfter
William Morris Hunt
(Brattleboro, Vermont, 1824 - 1879, Appledore Island, Maine)
Date1880
Place MadeUnited States, North America
MediumPlaster
Dimensions48.9 x 70.8 x 28.6 cm (19 1/4 x 27 7/8 x 11 1/4 in.)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberS33w2
eMuseum ID722664
EmbARK ObjectID13480
TMS Source ID2410
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb Commentary
William Morris Hunt modeled the horses pulling the chariot of the Anahita, the Persian goddess of fertility and the night, in preparation for a larger composition. Three of the deity’s horses charge forward, alongside a torch-bearing attendant. The Horses of Anahita was one of Hunt’s best known works, and the artist and his estate made multiple plaster casts of the sculpture.
This cast was an early acquisition by Isabella Stewart Gardner, who loved animals and even made a charitable donation to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals [MSPCA] in memory of her three horses—Dolly, Pluto, and Lady Betty.
BibliographyNotesAlbert TenEyck Gardner. American Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1965), pp. 22-23. (as a plaster replica of the cast in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, museum no. 80.12)
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), p. 159, no. 201. (as after 1879)
Thayer Tolles, ed. American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Volume 1. A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born before 1865.(New York, 1999), p. 100-102, cat. 39. (dated as 1880)
Ellen Promise, "Laser Cleaning: William Morris Hunt's Horses of Anahita," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 19 March 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/laser-cleaning-william-morris-hunts-horses-anahita
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), p. 159, no. 201. (as after 1879)
Thayer Tolles, ed. American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Volume 1. A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born before 1865.(New York, 1999), p. 100-102, cat. 39. (dated as 1880)
Ellen Promise, "Laser Cleaning: William Morris Hunt's Horses of Anahita," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 19 March 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/laser-cleaning-william-morris-hunts-horses-anahita
MarksNotesInscribed (rectangular label, center): COPYRIGHT MAR. 4 1880. / By ESTE WM. M. HUNT / L.D. HUNT. ADM[DC?]
Inscribed (oval label, left): P. GARIBOLDI / BOSTON
Inscribed (oval label, left): P. GARIBOLDI / BOSTON
ProvenanceNotesEntered Isabella Stewart Gardner's collection before 1901.
