In 1903 Edward Clark Potter was awarded a commission of $10,000 to produce the female sentinel lions for the inclined pedestals alongside the Library’s front steps. He sketched live models at the new lion house at the Bronx Zoo and sculpted a lioness in clay in his studio in Greenwich, Connecticut. He then created plaster models for the stonecutter, who in turn worked from large blocks of Tennessee marble. (Potter likely engaged John Grignola, an Italian immigrant and accomplished carver, to execute the work.)
Potter went on to sculpt the celebrated male lions that were installed in 1911 outside the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.
Henry Wysham Lanier (1873–1958)
J. Pierpont Morgan’s Library, 1906
Gelatin silver prints
The Morgan Library & Museum Archives; ARC 1793, 1794, 1796, and 1798