The Hunter

A bronze statuette titled, The Hunter (1902) by the South African artist Anton van Wouw (1862-1945). Between 1901 and 1902 Van Wouw spent nine months creating this work of an indigenous Khoisan Hunter, a work considered today as one of this most iconic works. The San male figure was named, Kiewiet (the name for a bird known as the Crowned Lapwing) who was under the employment of Van Wouw at the time. Kiewiet also known as Korhaan become enslaved to America where he was exhibited at the P T Barnum & Bailey Circus (Greatest Show on Earth) for thirty years. This bronze figure was cast in 1976 by the Fernando Marinelli Foundry in Florence. Short biography: Anton van Wouw was born on 26 December 1862 in Driebergen in the Netherlands. After school, Van Wouw began as a stucco worker in Delft where he learnt the art of sculpture. He studied at the Rotterdam Academy for Arts, but stopped his studies to join his father and brother in South Africa. After having a hard time as an artist in the early beginnings of his career of the then Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic 1852-1902) Van Wouw was finally recognised for his work when Sammy Marks (1884-1920), a Lithuanian-born South African industrialist and financier, commissioned Van Wouw to create the famous Kruger Memorial, currently situated on Church Square in the centre of South Africa's Capital city Pretoria. From there, Van Wouw's art went from strength to strength creating over 10 large bronze monuments, as well as more than 100 other sculptures in his lifetime. Anton van Wouw passed away in Pretoria in 1945.