WILLIAM HUNT DIEDERICH, CIRCA 1920S

In an interview conducted in 1920, Diederich explained his lifelong fascination with animals. 'As a child of five I embarked upon my artistic career by cutting out silhouettes of animals with a pair of broken scissors, for I love animals first, last, and always. I later took to carving my favorite model out of wood, and never have I ceased devoting a large part of my energies to animal subjects in one form or other. Animal seem to me truly plastic. They possess such a supple, unspoiled rhythm'. In fact, Diederich was working on the commission for a large-scale bas-relief for the ASPCA headquarters in Manhattan at the time of his death on May 14, 1953.