Central Park In Bronze

Location: 66th Street, mid-Park

Artist/Designer: John Quincy Adams Ward

Materials: Bronze, granite

Installation: 1869

Funding: 23 American artists and art patrons

 

This noble Lakota hunter with his dog is the first solo work of one of the most prolific sculptors of his day, John Quincy Adams Ward. Considered the “dean” of American sculptors, Ward may be best known for his statue of George Washington on Wall Street. His portrayal of the abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher, in Brooklyn, is often considered Ward’s best work.

 

Indian Hunter is the first work of an American artist to be placed in the Park. It is one of four works by Ward erected here; the others are The Pilgrim, Shakespeare, and the 7th Regiment Memorial. Indian Hunter is remarkable for its embrace of naturalistic rather than neoclassical themes and its distinctly American subject matter.