Cape Ann Museum to Install Monumental Katharine Lane Weems Sculpture Friday

The Cape Ann Museum will install a monumental bronze sculpture by noted animal Manchester sculptor Katharine Lane Weems in its renovated downtown courtyard on Friday, May 15, as part of the museum’s reopening following a nearly 20-month closure.

The sculpture, “Seated Cat (Sphinx),” is an enlarged version of a 1941 work by Weems.

The new bronze stands approximately eight feet tall, or about 10 feet including its base, and was modeled directly from the original sculpture, which measures roughly 18 inches high.

The enlarged version was created by sculptor Robert Shure of Skylight Studios in Woburn. Shure worked with Weems during her lifetime and has completed numerous large-scale public art projects throughout New England.

Museum officials said the project cost more than $100,000 and is intended to recognize Weems’ contributions as one of Cape Ann’s most prominent 20th-century sculptors.

Weems, who lived from 1899 to 1989, was born into a Boston family with an estate in Manchester known as “The Chimneys.”

She studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston under sculptor Charles Grafly and became widely known for her animal sculptures.

Among her best-known works are the bronze rhinoceroses outside Harvard University’s Biological Laboratories and the “Dolphins” sculpture installed at the New England Aquarium in 1979.

The sculpture will be installed by crane at approximately 10 a.m. Friday, May 15, in the Cape Ann Museum’s granite courtyard at 27 Pleasant St. in Gloucester.  The sculpture is scheduled to depart Skylight Studios in Woburn on Thursday afternoon.