In 1925 Calder made his first wire animal, a rooster (now lost), in New York. During the spring and summer of 1927 he began to work in Paris on his famous miniature Circus, in which he used wire and bits of wood. In the following year Carl Zigrosser gave Calder his first solo exhibition in New York at the Weyhe Gallery; the artist included about fifteen wire animals and people. Calder's first one-man show in Paris took place at the Galerie Billiet a year later and also included wood and wire sculptures. Among his circle at Montparnasse Calder was known as the "wire king." By 1931 he grew reluctant to exhibit the wire sculptures, because he felt their popularity detracted from the significance of his newer abstract work. Fox is probably the only wire sculpture which the artist painted.