Alexander Phimister Proctor (American, 1860-1950) Stalking Panther, modeled 1891-93 Bronze with dark brown patina 9-1/2 inches (24.1 cm) high Inscribed on base: A PHIMISTER PROCTOR 1891-1902 Inscribed on base: COPY-RIGHT Inscribed along base: ROMAN BRONZE WORKS. N.Y. Property from a Distinguished Maryland Collection LITERATURE: A.P. Proctor, Alexander Phimister Proctor: Sculptor in Buckskin, Norman, Oklahoma, 1971, p. 209, another example illustrated; P.J. Broder, Bronzes of the American West, New York, 1974, pp. 109, 111, pl. 102, another example illustrated (as Prowling Panther); T. Tolles, American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vol. I, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born before 1865, New York, 1999, pp. 414-15, no. 185, another example illustrated; P.H. Hassrick, Wildlife and Western Heroes: Alexander Phimister Proctor, Sculptor, Fort Worth, Texas, 2003, pp. 102-03, pl. 5, another example illustrated (as Panther); T. Tolles, T.B. Smith, The American West in Bronze, 1850-1925, New York, 2013, pp. 66-67, fig. 83, another example illustrated. Alexander Phimister Proctor's Stalking Panther is viewed as one of the artist's greatest anatomical animal bronzes. More importantly, however, it stands as a deeply biographical artistic expression—a manifestation of Proctor's own personal identity as an avid sportsman and hunter—while skillfully demonstrating the artist's mastery of the sculptural medium. Stalking Panther reinforces the persona central to Proctor's concept of himself as both an individual and an artist. Although most casts of Stalking Panther bear the inscribed date 1891, Proctor conceived the composition several years earlier, producing his first studies of a panther during a six-week hunting and "sketching vacation" in Colorado's Flat Tops in 1887 (P.H. Hassrick, Wildlife and Western Heroes: Alexander Phimister Proctor, Sculptor, Fort Worth, Texas, 2003, p. 102). Proctor's ability to capture his subject, suspended in a "freeze-frame" moment, was lauded by his contemporaries and critics during the period. Among the praise Proctor received for his naturalistic animal subjects, was one such review in 1911: "... gripping the earth in its stride, determination in its cruel jowl, fury in its swinging tail, and in its taut muscles, the clear proclamation of an irresistible leap. It does not require much effort of the imagination to see the long grasses part before the brute's advance, and all around you are aware of the hot sun and the smell of the woods. His animals are all like this. He gets their gait, the rippling of their skin, the tense direction of their ears, and the palpitation of their snuffing nostrils. Also he gets their grace and beauty, the charm that makes them worthwhile even to the beholder who has never slain anything more ferocious than a rabbit." (P.H. Hassrick, Wildlife and Western Heroes: Alexander Phimister Proctor, Sculptor, Fort Worth, Texas, 2003, p. 104). The work's resonance with observers is famously documented with Theodore Roosevelt's ownership of a cast of Stalking Panther, gifted to him by a group of his peers in March of 1909. In years following, the symbol of Proctor's Panther was reproduced as the lead illustration for the second chapter of Roosevelt's autobiography, entitled The Vigor of Life, published in 1913 (ibid, p. 102). HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

Dirt and dust in crevices. Slight wear to the high points of the bronze.
Overall: 9-½ inches high x 38 inches wide x 6 inches deep