Arthur Putman

Man Struggling with Lioness and Cub 

Bronze, by 1908, cast 1921 

The San Diego Museum of Art 

(This is me throwing up a peace sign) 

I was drawn to this piece because it looked cool, and in my opinion showed very good detailed craftsmanship. In particular, I was impressed with the way he captured the muscular definition of both the Lions and Man. I was also drawn to this piece because I read that his artistic abilities thrived when he lived in East County of San Diego, near where my grandparents live. 

The piece had a more symbolic meaning. I believe that it tries to capture the everyday struggles with your inner self. Such as a person fighting the pain from a troubled past, the momma lion could symbolize an abusive parent and the cub could be a bad sibling.

Putnam was one of the most famous sculptors in California. He followed one of the most famous sculptors of all time, Antoine-Louis Bayre. Arthur Putnam was considered "the American Bayre" because he adopted similar sculpture techniques which was during the Romantic movement of the early to mid 1800s.  During the time that Arthur Putnam was sculpting, the Realism art movement was happening. Even though realism rejects romanticism,  Putnam's pieces still followed the elements of romanticism connecting the human world and natural world.

However Romanticism shifted  to Symbolism during 1830–1900.  I believe Putnam's piece follows the shift. At his core Putnam was a Romantic, but his work also conveyed Symbolism as he demonstrated through his art, emotions, feelings, ideas rather than realism. I believe his work is personal and expressed his own ideologies.

While his first commission was five years earlier, there was no documentation of this piece being commissioned.  However, we do know that it was developed during his time in San Francisco where he began sculpting all the time. Unfortunately three years later he was partially paralyzed due to a brain tumor and was never able to work again. I believe the audience for Putnam's work is meant to be other artists that he spent a lot of time with, the wealthy that commissioned his work, and those that loved animals.